December 27, 2011
HEEELLLLOOOOO-
I was so glad to see you all on skype on Sunday. What a blessing to have technology and be in Portugal on an island and be able to talk to my family in America. Whoa. Thank you Heavenly Father. Isn´t the Dantes Family incredible?? I am so grateful for them. They fed us SO well and let us just hang out with their family all day. Mom- I will ask for their address and get the info to you. The mom is Fatima Dantes. You can probably find her on facebook, but she doesn´t speak English. Her son Timóteo Dantes speaks English (obviously, because you talked to him) but i am sure you can find him on facebook. That family is incredible and it is such a blessing to know them. Irmã Dias and i don´t know how we will thank them for everything they do for us. Every Sunday they feed us too mom. They always bring food to church for us and we take it home and eat it for a week. ha ha Irmã Dantes is a really good cook.
So- Sunday after church was incredible because we had two baptisms at the beach in Caniçal. It is really close to Machico. No one was there, it was calm, kinda cloudy, not too cold, a little windy, but a perfect day for baptisms in the ocean!!!!! Oh you will love the pictures. I am so happy for these people who have a desire to change their lives. We baptized Fabio a few weeks ago.. do you remember me telling you all about him?? Well, yesterday we baptized his dad, José! It was kinda a battle to get José to stop drinking wine, but finally on Saturday he committed to live the word of wisdom. Yeah- we cut it close. The other baptism was Maria José. She is the mom i told you about last week that should´ve been baptized with her daughter, but her daughter would not commit. She is kinda agnostic and has been difficult to meet with. So.. We just need to continue to pray and find the elect. They are here, we just have to be diligent in finding them.
I loved all of your faces when i said i have bed bugs.. yep. It sucks. Irmã Dias has it too, but mine is bad. It looks like i have a disease on my hands, arms and legs. ha ha ha ha I´ll have to take some pictures and send them to you.. you´ll laugh.
Wow- I can´t think of much to say because we chatted so much on Christmas. I am grateful for all of you. You are all looking SO good. I hope you have a great New Years. Take Care my loved ones :) Make it a goal this next year to never miss a day of reading your scriptures and saying your prayers NIGHT AND DAY. okay.. i love you, i love you.
XOXO
Irmã Kenzie Boshard
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
December 19, 2011
Christmas is this week?? No seriously.. How?? It was just summer.. oh wait.. it still is summer here on Madeira.. kinda.. Jelous? You should be. I am a missionary and i love my calling.
I am so glad to hear all of you are doing well, and your Christmas plans sound great because we GET TO SKYPE!!!! Yeah... i know. I am really excited to see all your faces because i thought i would just hear voices, but noooo. Okay. so Christmas day we have Sacrament meeting at 10am.. then afterwards a member is bringing a computer to the chapel for Irmã and i to skype. We don´t have Christmas plans with anyone in our ward so it might just be irmã and i chillin on Christmas.. Time for our chat, probably 45 minutes.. I will most likely be calling you before your sacrament meeting because when i call from here it will be about 5 or 6 am your time. most likely 6am.. I am sorry this is not set in stone, but you can all just roll out of bed.. OR is it better if i call after church.. aww man, i don´t know.
Last week i went to Lisboa for my residency card and i got to hang out with my MTC buds.. it was such a fun surprise.. I had no idea we would be doing our cards together.. While i was there i got my Christmas package from Grandma Boshard, cards and treats from all my wonderful friends and family.. The Nylunds sent me amazing chocolate from Sweden. Thank you.. I will make sure to get thank you cards out.. don´t worry, but I wanted to make sure they know i got their packages.. Mom.. I am still waiting on the Christmas package, but i hope it will come sometime this week.
The work this last week was full of opposition and our two baptisms fell. It was the mom and daughter we found last week or the week before. Anyway, I am kinda impatient with Satan.. He really works hard on the people out here.. The mom returned to smoking, the daughter didn´t really want to talk to us and they said it is too soon, we can´t do this, it hasn´t been enough time, yadda yadda.. Satan Satan Satan.. The moment we start teaching people about the gospel or we mark someone to be baptized, Satan is ticked and puts doubts in their mind and well, we just have to work a little harder.. We always warn our investigators about opposition and Satan and the doubts and all the rest.. but we are really in the last days and need to more firm in all that we do. We need to pray for all the people in the world to have an open heart and mind. To recognize the voice of the lord when we show up on the door step. We need to pray to help these sweet investigators fight off the temptation of Satan. My heart breaks when baptisms fall. Obviously, you all know i am a cry baby and so sensitive to the spirit, i had a difficult week with the opposition. I love seeing the change in peoples life, the light of Christ and the desire to follow the teachings of our savior. I should have no need to worry because we are going to try and get them baptized again this week.
Never be afraid to open your mouth and share the gospel. Internalize the basics of the doctrine and the spirit will guide you to the rest. I cannot express my gratitude enough to Heavenly Father for the knowledge of the gospel and the have the opportunity to leave you all and share the gospel with the Portuguese people. I never took thought to be diligent in studying the Scriptures before my mission. I read them because everyone said, read your scriptures.. Well now that i am here in the mission i know why we read the scriptures. I know why we pray before and after studies, i know why it is a commandment to read, pray and go to church.. We are learning of eternal principals, we will only take our knowledge with us after this life. Start now, don´t wait until tomorrow when you have an extra 5 minutes. Act today. You will see the blessings pour out in your life. I see them everyday in mine. I say this all the time, i need this mission more than this mission needs me. I have gained some much more than i feel like i can offer someone else.. but yet i have been blessed to bless the lives of others.
I love you all so very much.. I hope you all have a great week and i will see you on Sunday.. It´s a date :) LOVE YOU XOXO
Irmã Boshard
Christmas is this week?? No seriously.. How?? It was just summer.. oh wait.. it still is summer here on Madeira.. kinda.. Jelous? You should be. I am a missionary and i love my calling.
I am so glad to hear all of you are doing well, and your Christmas plans sound great because we GET TO SKYPE!!!! Yeah... i know. I am really excited to see all your faces because i thought i would just hear voices, but noooo. Okay. so Christmas day we have Sacrament meeting at 10am.. then afterwards a member is bringing a computer to the chapel for Irmã and i to skype. We don´t have Christmas plans with anyone in our ward so it might just be irmã and i chillin on Christmas.. Time for our chat, probably 45 minutes.. I will most likely be calling you before your sacrament meeting because when i call from here it will be about 5 or 6 am your time. most likely 6am.. I am sorry this is not set in stone, but you can all just roll out of bed.. OR is it better if i call after church.. aww man, i don´t know.
Last week i went to Lisboa for my residency card and i got to hang out with my MTC buds.. it was such a fun surprise.. I had no idea we would be doing our cards together.. While i was there i got my Christmas package from Grandma Boshard, cards and treats from all my wonderful friends and family.. The Nylunds sent me amazing chocolate from Sweden. Thank you.. I will make sure to get thank you cards out.. don´t worry, but I wanted to make sure they know i got their packages.. Mom.. I am still waiting on the Christmas package, but i hope it will come sometime this week.
The work this last week was full of opposition and our two baptisms fell. It was the mom and daughter we found last week or the week before. Anyway, I am kinda impatient with Satan.. He really works hard on the people out here.. The mom returned to smoking, the daughter didn´t really want to talk to us and they said it is too soon, we can´t do this, it hasn´t been enough time, yadda yadda.. Satan Satan Satan.. The moment we start teaching people about the gospel or we mark someone to be baptized, Satan is ticked and puts doubts in their mind and well, we just have to work a little harder.. We always warn our investigators about opposition and Satan and the doubts and all the rest.. but we are really in the last days and need to more firm in all that we do. We need to pray for all the people in the world to have an open heart and mind. To recognize the voice of the lord when we show up on the door step. We need to pray to help these sweet investigators fight off the temptation of Satan. My heart breaks when baptisms fall. Obviously, you all know i am a cry baby and so sensitive to the spirit, i had a difficult week with the opposition. I love seeing the change in peoples life, the light of Christ and the desire to follow the teachings of our savior. I should have no need to worry because we are going to try and get them baptized again this week.
Never be afraid to open your mouth and share the gospel. Internalize the basics of the doctrine and the spirit will guide you to the rest. I cannot express my gratitude enough to Heavenly Father for the knowledge of the gospel and the have the opportunity to leave you all and share the gospel with the Portuguese people. I never took thought to be diligent in studying the Scriptures before my mission. I read them because everyone said, read your scriptures.. Well now that i am here in the mission i know why we read the scriptures. I know why we pray before and after studies, i know why it is a commandment to read, pray and go to church.. We are learning of eternal principals, we will only take our knowledge with us after this life. Start now, don´t wait until tomorrow when you have an extra 5 minutes. Act today. You will see the blessings pour out in your life. I see them everyday in mine. I say this all the time, i need this mission more than this mission needs me. I have gained some much more than i feel like i can offer someone else.. but yet i have been blessed to bless the lives of others.
I love you all so very much.. I hope you all have a great week and i will see you on Sunday.. It´s a date :) LOVE YOU XOXO
Irmã Boshard
Me and Irma Dias
Irma's at the beach
Beautiful Christmas day at the beach
Baptisms on Christmas day
There is nothing better than being at a baptism on Christmas day!
Irma Dias and me
"Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill and cannot be hid..."
This is a beautiful family
Christmas Eve dinner at our apartment in Madeira
Merry Christmas
Sitting on my bed with this beautiful, colorful wrap that was a gift from Irma Dias' mom. She also sent me a Portugal pen!
This is my district, yes they are goobs! The finger M's are for Madeira
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Happy Holidays
Hi there,
I got your letter Hannah and your stickers mom from Thanksgiving.. Loved it.. I will save them for next year.. ha ha Thanks for always thinking of me and sending me thoughtful cards and gifts.. I love you!
SOO.. clearly i am emailing you and i am not in Lisboa.. So sad.. We were all so excited to go to Lisboa today.. I had talked to 3 different people about the chirtsmas party and it was all planned that we would fly to Lisboa today, but this last week they changed it and President and Irmã Torgan flew to Madeira and we had our own little christmas party here. Funny Story.. The office Elders forgot to call the Zone Leaders and tell us we were having a christmas party here and on Wednesday Irmã and i were getting ready to leave our house for some appointments and we got a call from the district leaders saying.. you will never believe what is going on right now.. President and Irmã Torgan are in Funchal and a member had made a feast for us and they are wondering where are the missionaries.. ha ha We hopped on a bus and arrived and hour and a half later, we had a christmas party and feasted.. ha ha President and Irmã were in the chapel forever waiting for us.. I felt so bad.. ooops those poor elders that forgot to call us.. How do you forget to call an island and say.. hey your mission president is flying out to see you.. Any way, we sang christmas songs, ate good food, President gave inspiration and it was nice..
This mission is full of miracles and i am so grateful for all the things President Torgan is teaching us.. one thing that we have to remember everyday is, be humble, repent EVERYDAY and do the will of the lord.. So one night this week Irmã and i were doing some contacting and it wasn´t going super well, so we stopped at a corner to pray and repent for whatever it was we did wrong and fix it so we can find investigators.. right as we were going to pray Irmã Dias saw a woman sitting on a bech and said we should talk to her.. I said let´s pray and talk to her after.. Right as we were starting to pray this woman got up and was walking towards us. She said excuse me, i am sorry.. I would love to talk to you.. She began to cry and was explaining how hard her life is right now and needs a change.. we sat on a bench and talked with her forever.. in the end we made an appointment to meet with her again and she said can i bring my daughter? She is 19 and i think she would love your message.. so We met with them this week and everything went smoothly and we marked them to be baptized next sunday!!! We are so excited.. A cute little family.. Every time i have a baptism.. i think, my mission is complete.. I´ve found they elect.. but then the week after Heavenly Father places someone else in my path and the cycle starts over again.. This work is such a blessing!!!
That is crazy Lauren will be home next week.. I don´t want that to be me.. Bahhh one year.. I pray that is goes extremely SLOW.. (sorry mom). What about Amy.. I know she leaves in a month or so right?
Until next week!!! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
I got your letter Hannah and your stickers mom from Thanksgiving.. Loved it.. I will save them for next year.. ha ha Thanks for always thinking of me and sending me thoughtful cards and gifts.. I love you!
SOO.. clearly i am emailing you and i am not in Lisboa.. So sad.. We were all so excited to go to Lisboa today.. I had talked to 3 different people about the chirtsmas party and it was all planned that we would fly to Lisboa today, but this last week they changed it and President and Irmã Torgan flew to Madeira and we had our own little christmas party here. Funny Story.. The office Elders forgot to call the Zone Leaders and tell us we were having a christmas party here and on Wednesday Irmã and i were getting ready to leave our house for some appointments and we got a call from the district leaders saying.. you will never believe what is going on right now.. President and Irmã Torgan are in Funchal and a member had made a feast for us and they are wondering where are the missionaries.. ha ha We hopped on a bus and arrived and hour and a half later, we had a christmas party and feasted.. ha ha President and Irmã were in the chapel forever waiting for us.. I felt so bad.. ooops those poor elders that forgot to call us.. How do you forget to call an island and say.. hey your mission president is flying out to see you.. Any way, we sang christmas songs, ate good food, President gave inspiration and it was nice..
This mission is full of miracles and i am so grateful for all the things President Torgan is teaching us.. one thing that we have to remember everyday is, be humble, repent EVERYDAY and do the will of the lord.. So one night this week Irmã and i were doing some contacting and it wasn´t going super well, so we stopped at a corner to pray and repent for whatever it was we did wrong and fix it so we can find investigators.. right as we were going to pray Irmã Dias saw a woman sitting on a bech and said we should talk to her.. I said let´s pray and talk to her after.. Right as we were starting to pray this woman got up and was walking towards us. She said excuse me, i am sorry.. I would love to talk to you.. She began to cry and was explaining how hard her life is right now and needs a change.. we sat on a bench and talked with her forever.. in the end we made an appointment to meet with her again and she said can i bring my daughter? She is 19 and i think she would love your message.. so We met with them this week and everything went smoothly and we marked them to be baptized next sunday!!! We are so excited.. A cute little family.. Every time i have a baptism.. i think, my mission is complete.. I´ve found they elect.. but then the week after Heavenly Father places someone else in my path and the cycle starts over again.. This work is such a blessing!!!
That is crazy Lauren will be home next week.. I don´t want that to be me.. Bahhh one year.. I pray that is goes extremely SLOW.. (sorry mom). What about Amy.. I know she leaves in a month or so right?
Until next week!!! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, December 5, 2011
Happy Holidays From Madeira!
Happy Holidays!!! On the island of Madeira.. It feels like summer to me. It is sunny most days and when it rains it is not too cold. It definitely does not feel like December.. I feel like it should be snowing any day now.. This is weird..
So- sorry Drew i didn´t get the chance to respond about the missionary in your ward from Portugal.. What is his name again and where did he live in Portugal?? Details.. Thanks :) oh yeah.. my zone leaders have a package for me and i think it might be the one you send me.. They said i can get it this week.. We´ll see, but thanks for being so thoughtful.. I love you!
This week was a week of miracles.. seriously. My mind is blown at how the Lord works with missionaries. Saturday night last week we met a drunk on the side of the road and invited him to church.. well he came to church last week and brought a friend with him.. The friend is Fabio.. Fabio had some questions after church.. said he loved the feeling of peace during the meetings and would like to return.. He talked about his mom that passed away and it has been rough, so we talked about eternal families, you know the routine and well we instantly made an appointment to teach him and the following Tuesday we taught him and marked him to be baptized on Sunday (yesterday). Tuesday night, he gave up drinking, smoking and coffee, cold turkey people.. and never returned to it this week.. It wasn´t even a temptation for him. He is SO elect.. and was baptized yesterday.. He actually received the Holy Ghost yesterday too because on Friday he is moving to England for work and won´t be returning to Madeira for a while. He can´t wait to meet the members in England start his new life there.. Seriously.. I was so grateful to be and instrument in the Lords hands to help change Fabio´s life.
Yesterday we also baptized João.. yay!! 2 baptisms!! João has been in depression for the last 6 months and it was a blessing to find him in the road last Sunday night.. He had attend church years ago with the Elders and was excited to find us and return to church with us this week. João is quiet and timid but truly loves the lord and wants a new path in life. Right after he was baptized he walked out of the font, he slipped and fell and hit is head on the stairs.. His head started bleeding, i gasped extremely loud and was so worried. He was starting to feel pain but said he was fine. Thankfully our Zone leaders were there to help us and they cleaned up his head and said it was deep and that he should be okay but we should go to the hospital because we don´t want anything bad to happen if he goes to sleep. So- after the baptism we drove to the hospital and waited for an hour and a half and thank heavens João was alright and his cut wasn´t seriously deep.
I will never stop talking about how grateful i am for this mission. It is such a blessing in my life to be of service in the Lords hands and teach others about his message. What if i extend my mission and stay here forever??
I love Irmã Dias.. She and i have a blast doing this work together.. We have the same vision and purpose here, the work comes easy.. (some days.. Of course you know it is not perfect out here in the mission field) but She and i are ment to be serving together in this time. I have so much to learn from her.
Okay- a few questions and favors...
Mom and Drew- can you find Alyssa Mortensen on facebook for me and get her address? She and i were companions in Odivelas and i need to write her and send her some pictures... Will you check on her too.. Make sure she is doing alright for me.. She returned home just a few weeks ago from the field i need an update on her. But not that i am a creep.. She´ll understand :)
Did you get my postcards? I hope so.. I thought they were so cool.. the material of cork.. I found then at Cristo Rei in Almada.
I love you all.. as always.. you are my family and all! I hope you are all having fun prepping for the holidays.. We get to chat soon.. Already.. Man.. Okay.. apostasy.. I can´t think about that..
Take care! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
P.s... I may or may not email you next week because we are flying to Lisboa for our Mission Christmas Party and i don´t know if i will have time to shoot you all an email.. so... be patient.
p.s.s My new favorite scripture is Alma 12: 35 Read it. Love it. Live by it.
okay.. i re-read this email and i need to clarify that João´s cut was NOT deep when the Elders looked at it the first time.. man.. sometimes i type so fast.. sorry..
What is it with me and hospitals.. man, i am curse aren´t i??
*Posted By The Boshard Family
So- sorry Drew i didn´t get the chance to respond about the missionary in your ward from Portugal.. What is his name again and where did he live in Portugal?? Details.. Thanks :) oh yeah.. my zone leaders have a package for me and i think it might be the one you send me.. They said i can get it this week.. We´ll see, but thanks for being so thoughtful.. I love you!
This week was a week of miracles.. seriously. My mind is blown at how the Lord works with missionaries. Saturday night last week we met a drunk on the side of the road and invited him to church.. well he came to church last week and brought a friend with him.. The friend is Fabio.. Fabio had some questions after church.. said he loved the feeling of peace during the meetings and would like to return.. He talked about his mom that passed away and it has been rough, so we talked about eternal families, you know the routine and well we instantly made an appointment to teach him and the following Tuesday we taught him and marked him to be baptized on Sunday (yesterday). Tuesday night, he gave up drinking, smoking and coffee, cold turkey people.. and never returned to it this week.. It wasn´t even a temptation for him. He is SO elect.. and was baptized yesterday.. He actually received the Holy Ghost yesterday too because on Friday he is moving to England for work and won´t be returning to Madeira for a while. He can´t wait to meet the members in England start his new life there.. Seriously.. I was so grateful to be and instrument in the Lords hands to help change Fabio´s life.
Yesterday we also baptized João.. yay!! 2 baptisms!! João has been in depression for the last 6 months and it was a blessing to find him in the road last Sunday night.. He had attend church years ago with the Elders and was excited to find us and return to church with us this week. João is quiet and timid but truly loves the lord and wants a new path in life. Right after he was baptized he walked out of the font, he slipped and fell and hit is head on the stairs.. His head started bleeding, i gasped extremely loud and was so worried. He was starting to feel pain but said he was fine. Thankfully our Zone leaders were there to help us and they cleaned up his head and said it was deep and that he should be okay but we should go to the hospital because we don´t want anything bad to happen if he goes to sleep. So- after the baptism we drove to the hospital and waited for an hour and a half and thank heavens João was alright and his cut wasn´t seriously deep.
I will never stop talking about how grateful i am for this mission. It is such a blessing in my life to be of service in the Lords hands and teach others about his message. What if i extend my mission and stay here forever??
I love Irmã Dias.. She and i have a blast doing this work together.. We have the same vision and purpose here, the work comes easy.. (some days.. Of course you know it is not perfect out here in the mission field) but She and i are ment to be serving together in this time. I have so much to learn from her.
Okay- a few questions and favors...
Mom and Drew- can you find Alyssa Mortensen on facebook for me and get her address? She and i were companions in Odivelas and i need to write her and send her some pictures... Will you check on her too.. Make sure she is doing alright for me.. She returned home just a few weeks ago from the field i need an update on her. But not that i am a creep.. She´ll understand :)
Did you get my postcards? I hope so.. I thought they were so cool.. the material of cork.. I found then at Cristo Rei in Almada.
I love you all.. as always.. you are my family and all! I hope you are all having fun prepping for the holidays.. We get to chat soon.. Already.. Man.. Okay.. apostasy.. I can´t think about that..
Take care! XOXO
Irmã Boshard
P.s... I may or may not email you next week because we are flying to Lisboa for our Mission Christmas Party and i don´t know if i will have time to shoot you all an email.. so... be patient.
p.s.s My new favorite scripture is Alma 12: 35 Read it. Love it. Live by it.
okay.. i re-read this email and i need to clarify that João´s cut was NOT deep when the Elders looked at it the first time.. man.. sometimes i type so fast.. sorry..
What is it with me and hospitals.. man, i am curse aren´t i??
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, November 28, 2011
Information Overload!
The Lords creation is without words. The Island of Madeira is incredible. You can see the ocean from every angle of the island. The island isn´t super big. I went to Funchal for a zone meeting and it was and hour long bus ride of beauty.. freak. I love it all. Our zone has 8 missionaries and we have all heard what a privilege it is to serve here.. We are so grateful to represent Christ here.
This week i had my first run in with someone who has done research about the Mormons online.. and he speaks English so it made things worse because i could understand what he said. He is an investigator the missionaries have been teaching for about 4 or 5 weeks and he is not very intelligent because he said that we are preaching a false Christ and our church is built on sand and not a rock because God changes his mind. For example when the black people couldn´t hold the priesthood.. yadda yadda.. this guy said our church is a mask and the devil is behind it.. and i cried and cried and we left his house. I felt so sick to my stomach. It was awful and i never want to feel that way again.. But we returned to his house because we feel like he needs to be baptized.. so we returned and he said i am sorry for yesterday.. I am not the first person to say these things to you am i? and i said.. yep.. he said, welcome to Madeira.. ha ha ha We found 26 new investigators this week and had over 40 other lessons with investigators.. it was incredible.. We are planning on baptizing them all.. don´t worry.
Yesterday i met our ward of maybe 10 or 13 active members.. It was kind of a shock for me. Heavenly Father has send me here to truly help with the Less Actives and baptisms. I love the ward though.. They are so welcoming. I will be speaking and teaching many classes this transfer.. I feel bad for those who have to listen to my Portuguese.. ha ha I met a young man who just returned home from his mission last week from Manchester England.. I said, oh my gosh.. do you know Elder Rodgerson? He freaked and said YES.. I was his zone leader this last transfer.. He loves Trace and said he the hardest working missionary in the field.. Doesn´t surprise me.. Trace is a machine.. So you should tell the Rodgersons that Trace is very loved in England.. but that is no surprise.. The Elder i met is Elder Dandast.. i hope i spelled is name right.. Small world right???
Our contacts were interesting this last week.. we did find 26 new investigators.. But One night Irmã Dias and i were walking on the sidewalk and a man says.. Hey. I see you around all the time i want to know your message.. (he was drunk) and we talked to him and prayed and testified of course.. and then he saw his friend Fransisco, and called him over (he was drunk too) and we prayed with him and taught him on the street.. and right after we said the prayer and i opened my eyes there was a man standing right in front of me, nose to nose (he was drunk too) and said, hey, i want to come to church with you.. where is your church? and bam.. we found 3 drunk men wanting to know the message of Christ. It was fantastic. I love doing this everyday of my life.
Saturday night Irmã and i found a new investigator, her name is Conceição on our way home for the night and we invited her to church and she said she would come, but everyone says they will come so we didn´t expect to see her in church... but she came and we were thrilled. During sacrament meeting she saw two investigators receive the Holy Ghost and she said i want that.. Can those men put their hands on my head today? I said not today but after you are baptized you can receive the holy ghost and i explained to her baptism and everything about it.. and she said i want to be baptized.. when can i be baptized and we said next Sunday.. she said okay.. I am being baptized next Sunday.. WHAT THE HECK.. i was speechless.. She is elect and a miracle that was put right into our hands.. I love Conceição.. She is incredible and will be an incredible member..
My companion is Portuguese, clearly, and we would love to eat like Americans on Christmas. Can you send us some American chocolate?? Like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.. She would love to try them.. I speak very highly of this treat some times.
I hope you all enjoy the pictures.. that is just a small fraction of what i have on my camera.. I am sorry i slacked in this area for you all.. but no worries.. I will send more next week and for the rest of the mish.. I got a message dad´s email couldn´t receive my 3rd transfer pictures.. so please forward that to him for me.. I am out of time or else i would try to fix it.. I love you all and i hope you have a great week. I am off to eat lunch by the ocean..
Happy Holidays!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
p.s. i hope this email makes sense because i wrote it super fast. mkay. bye.
*Posted By The Boshard Family
This week i had my first run in with someone who has done research about the Mormons online.. and he speaks English so it made things worse because i could understand what he said. He is an investigator the missionaries have been teaching for about 4 or 5 weeks and he is not very intelligent because he said that we are preaching a false Christ and our church is built on sand and not a rock because God changes his mind. For example when the black people couldn´t hold the priesthood.. yadda yadda.. this guy said our church is a mask and the devil is behind it.. and i cried and cried and we left his house. I felt so sick to my stomach. It was awful and i never want to feel that way again.. But we returned to his house because we feel like he needs to be baptized.. so we returned and he said i am sorry for yesterday.. I am not the first person to say these things to you am i? and i said.. yep.. he said, welcome to Madeira.. ha ha ha We found 26 new investigators this week and had over 40 other lessons with investigators.. it was incredible.. We are planning on baptizing them all.. don´t worry.
Yesterday i met our ward of maybe 10 or 13 active members.. It was kind of a shock for me. Heavenly Father has send me here to truly help with the Less Actives and baptisms. I love the ward though.. They are so welcoming. I will be speaking and teaching many classes this transfer.. I feel bad for those who have to listen to my Portuguese.. ha ha I met a young man who just returned home from his mission last week from Manchester England.. I said, oh my gosh.. do you know Elder Rodgerson? He freaked and said YES.. I was his zone leader this last transfer.. He loves Trace and said he the hardest working missionary in the field.. Doesn´t surprise me.. Trace is a machine.. So you should tell the Rodgersons that Trace is very loved in England.. but that is no surprise.. The Elder i met is Elder Dandast.. i hope i spelled is name right.. Small world right???
Our contacts were interesting this last week.. we did find 26 new investigators.. But One night Irmã Dias and i were walking on the sidewalk and a man says.. Hey. I see you around all the time i want to know your message.. (he was drunk) and we talked to him and prayed and testified of course.. and then he saw his friend Fransisco, and called him over (he was drunk too) and we prayed with him and taught him on the street.. and right after we said the prayer and i opened my eyes there was a man standing right in front of me, nose to nose (he was drunk too) and said, hey, i want to come to church with you.. where is your church? and bam.. we found 3 drunk men wanting to know the message of Christ. It was fantastic. I love doing this everyday of my life.
Saturday night Irmã and i found a new investigator, her name is Conceição on our way home for the night and we invited her to church and she said she would come, but everyone says they will come so we didn´t expect to see her in church... but she came and we were thrilled. During sacrament meeting she saw two investigators receive the Holy Ghost and she said i want that.. Can those men put their hands on my head today? I said not today but after you are baptized you can receive the holy ghost and i explained to her baptism and everything about it.. and she said i want to be baptized.. when can i be baptized and we said next Sunday.. she said okay.. I am being baptized next Sunday.. WHAT THE HECK.. i was speechless.. She is elect and a miracle that was put right into our hands.. I love Conceição.. She is incredible and will be an incredible member..
My companion is Portuguese, clearly, and we would love to eat like Americans on Christmas. Can you send us some American chocolate?? Like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.. She would love to try them.. I speak very highly of this treat some times.
I hope you all enjoy the pictures.. that is just a small fraction of what i have on my camera.. I am sorry i slacked in this area for you all.. but no worries.. I will send more next week and for the rest of the mish.. I got a message dad´s email couldn´t receive my 3rd transfer pictures.. so please forward that to him for me.. I am out of time or else i would try to fix it.. I love you all and i hope you have a great week. I am off to eat lunch by the ocean..
Happy Holidays!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
p.s. i hope this email makes sense because i wrote it super fast. mkay. bye.
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, November 21, 2011
Transfers!
Today is transfer day...and...............I am serving in the Land of MADEIRA!!!!! OH MY GOSH IT IS GORGEOUS HERE!!!! It is surreal. Last night at 10pm i got a call from the Office Elders and they told me i needed to pack my bags and be ready to catch a flight to Madeira this morning. So i packed and couldn´t sleep, obviously, and then i caught a flight, alone, flew for an hour and a half and now... I am here in Madeira. I cannot believe this is where Heavenly Father needs me to serve. I am so so grateful to be here. It is a privilege to serve on the Islands. WOW. It is warm and humid and GREEN. Yeah- I am at a lost for words. I am so happy.
My companion is Irmã Dias. She is from Portugal and yes, she speaks Portuguese. I am going to help her learn English! I helped Irmã Dos Santos last transfer with English and she was making incredible progress. I have realized i should never teach English because i don´t even know English myself. ha ha All the missionaries who don´t speak English have the opportunity to learn English in the mission. It is a great place to learn because as we all know through the spirit we will have the gift of tongues.
We didn´t have any baptisms last week, unfortunately. Admilson was marked to be baptized yesterday but he said that he is too afraid to leave the catholic church. We have been teaching him for 2 and a half, maybe 3 weeks. He is 22 years old and has a testimony but won´t act on it. It is so frustrating at times to see progress, yet someone won´t take the next step and be baptized. He asked if he could still come to church and if we can still teach him.. so hopefully he will be baptized soon. I am sad i won´t be in Almada to see it. One day, opposition will leave the earth and i can´t wait! until then, we will continue on, right?
Irmã Dos Santos and i found an ELECT investigator last night at like 9:20pm right before we were going home. She has already been to church, she was taught by the missionaries and asked if she could still be baptized.. OH MY YES!!!!! With transfers and other missionaries she must have been forgotten, but what a blessing we found her and should probably be baptized this week. But i won´t be there.. i have work to do here in this land of paradise!!!
So funny story.. last night when i was packing, i found my camera cable in my suit case.. What the?? Where did it come from because i am pretty sure i do not remember packing it ha ha However, i am very sorry i didn´t bring it with me today. I have not unpacked my suitcase yet. SOOO.. next week, i will email you pictures! YAY!!
Okay i finally have the email address for Leonardo Carvalho. He was a missionary when Brother Meeks was the Mission President in Porto. Can you give it to Brother Meeks for me?? Thanks!!! xico335@gmail.com
I hope you are all well and I love you.. Stay strong. I will pray for Grandma Jacobs.. I am hoping for the best.. you must let me know how the surgery goes and what happens. Tell her i love her and i am thinking about her.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
My companion is Irmã Dias. She is from Portugal and yes, she speaks Portuguese. I am going to help her learn English! I helped Irmã Dos Santos last transfer with English and she was making incredible progress. I have realized i should never teach English because i don´t even know English myself. ha ha All the missionaries who don´t speak English have the opportunity to learn English in the mission. It is a great place to learn because as we all know through the spirit we will have the gift of tongues.
We didn´t have any baptisms last week, unfortunately. Admilson was marked to be baptized yesterday but he said that he is too afraid to leave the catholic church. We have been teaching him for 2 and a half, maybe 3 weeks. He is 22 years old and has a testimony but won´t act on it. It is so frustrating at times to see progress, yet someone won´t take the next step and be baptized. He asked if he could still come to church and if we can still teach him.. so hopefully he will be baptized soon. I am sad i won´t be in Almada to see it. One day, opposition will leave the earth and i can´t wait! until then, we will continue on, right?
Irmã Dos Santos and i found an ELECT investigator last night at like 9:20pm right before we were going home. She has already been to church, she was taught by the missionaries and asked if she could still be baptized.. OH MY YES!!!!! With transfers and other missionaries she must have been forgotten, but what a blessing we found her and should probably be baptized this week. But i won´t be there.. i have work to do here in this land of paradise!!!
So funny story.. last night when i was packing, i found my camera cable in my suit case.. What the?? Where did it come from because i am pretty sure i do not remember packing it ha ha However, i am very sorry i didn´t bring it with me today. I have not unpacked my suitcase yet. SOOO.. next week, i will email you pictures! YAY!!
Okay i finally have the email address for Leonardo Carvalho. He was a missionary when Brother Meeks was the Mission President in Porto. Can you give it to Brother Meeks for me?? Thanks!!! xico335@gmail.com
I hope you are all well and I love you.. Stay strong. I will pray for Grandma Jacobs.. I am hoping for the best.. you must let me know how the surgery goes and what happens. Tell her i love her and i am thinking about her.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
Monday, November 14, 2011
WARNING.. This email will be super boring
HI THERE!
WARNING.. This email will be super boring. I don´t have much to report on. So- I am thrilled this last week has past and we have a new week ahead of us. There was too much drama and other things this week i can only tell you about when i come home. ha ha Last Monday Irmã Dos Santos and i went to Cristo Rei.. It was pretty dang cool. I have lots of pictures i need to send. By the way sorry i never send pictures.. I will work on printing some either today or next week. Irmã and i found a guy at Cristo Rei, he spoke English and yes, I contacted him at Cristo Rei. It was awkward talking about the gospel in English. I felt like i didn´t know what to say. I am more comfortable teaching in Portuguese ha ha. Well, Long story short this guy lives in Lisboa which is not our area, but he loved the first lesson and i made sure the Elders will pass by.
This week will be my 6th month mark in the mission. Have a i been gone 6 months?? I have no sense of time. It feels like i just left home.
This is the last week of the transfer and i am pretty sure i will stay.. My area has a lot of work to do and i need to help strengthen my ward. I don´t know how though. I pray everyday to do what the lord needs me to do, yet i still struggle to find ways to do exactly what he needs of me.
Today I went to the hospital again.. ha ha so fun. I love Lisboa so it is not a problem. When i had the ear infection weeks back, the doctors put me on a medication that i shouldn´t have been on so i had to go in for a physical exam and a blood test today. I am TOTALLY fine, we´ll get the results this week.. i am telling you this because i am filling space in this email ha ha... and we left our house at 10am this morning and returned to our area at 3pm. Oh the joy of hospitals. So in the end of the story, no worries..
We didn´t baptize this week, probably because of all the drama we dealt with.. actually- no it definitely was our fault we didn´t baptize because we didn´t try harder to dunk people in the water. Remember Ian? I talked about him last week.. we tried to baptize him again this week but his mom will not give permission and Irmã Dos Santos kinda gave her a chat about his salvation and yet she won´t budge. It is so hard when we get attached to special people who we know the lord has prepared for us, yet people still have agency and that affects salvation.
To end this very boring email i will leave you with my favorite scripture i found this week. John 14: 26-27. It is about the Holy ghost and the peace we feel because of it´s companionship. It is not peace from the world but peace from our Lord. Which is SO much more important than anything else. I am glad to hear everyone is doing well. I love you all so much and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.. I can´t believe it is already this time of year. I feel like it should still be summer. p.s. Transfers are next Monday so i will try to still email you if i have time. mkay?
I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
WARNING.. This email will be super boring. I don´t have much to report on. So- I am thrilled this last week has past and we have a new week ahead of us. There was too much drama and other things this week i can only tell you about when i come home. ha ha Last Monday Irmã Dos Santos and i went to Cristo Rei.. It was pretty dang cool. I have lots of pictures i need to send. By the way sorry i never send pictures.. I will work on printing some either today or next week. Irmã and i found a guy at Cristo Rei, he spoke English and yes, I contacted him at Cristo Rei. It was awkward talking about the gospel in English. I felt like i didn´t know what to say. I am more comfortable teaching in Portuguese ha ha. Well, Long story short this guy lives in Lisboa which is not our area, but he loved the first lesson and i made sure the Elders will pass by.
This week will be my 6th month mark in the mission. Have a i been gone 6 months?? I have no sense of time. It feels like i just left home.
This is the last week of the transfer and i am pretty sure i will stay.. My area has a lot of work to do and i need to help strengthen my ward. I don´t know how though. I pray everyday to do what the lord needs me to do, yet i still struggle to find ways to do exactly what he needs of me.
Today I went to the hospital again.. ha ha so fun. I love Lisboa so it is not a problem. When i had the ear infection weeks back, the doctors put me on a medication that i shouldn´t have been on so i had to go in for a physical exam and a blood test today. I am TOTALLY fine, we´ll get the results this week.. i am telling you this because i am filling space in this email ha ha... and we left our house at 10am this morning and returned to our area at 3pm. Oh the joy of hospitals. So in the end of the story, no worries..
We didn´t baptize this week, probably because of all the drama we dealt with.. actually- no it definitely was our fault we didn´t baptize because we didn´t try harder to dunk people in the water. Remember Ian? I talked about him last week.. we tried to baptize him again this week but his mom will not give permission and Irmã Dos Santos kinda gave her a chat about his salvation and yet she won´t budge. It is so hard when we get attached to special people who we know the lord has prepared for us, yet people still have agency and that affects salvation.
To end this very boring email i will leave you with my favorite scripture i found this week. John 14: 26-27. It is about the Holy ghost and the peace we feel because of it´s companionship. It is not peace from the world but peace from our Lord. Which is SO much more important than anything else. I am glad to hear everyone is doing well. I love you all so much and HAPPY HOLIDAYS.. I can´t believe it is already this time of year. I feel like it should still be summer. p.s. Transfers are next Monday so i will try to still email you if i have time. mkay?
I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, November 7, 2011
Not Much To Tell...
Hellllo my eternal family,
So this week, honestly i don´t even have that much to say.. sorry. For starters I had a baptism yesterday. yay.. Her name is Joana.. a mom of 3 and she is from cape Verde.. i think.. Her baptism was set for 6pm last night and she wasn´t at the chapel and she wasn´t answering her phone.. so we obviously left everyone at the chapel to go find her.. we went to her house, she was there with her daughter and said i can´t be baptized because i just got home from the hospital. my daughter is sick and needs to stay inside, blah blah blah... We prayed, got her ready and her daughter ready and She was baptized at 9pm last night.. I am learning patience for reals out here.. Wow.. waiting on people.. well you all know.. just isn´t my thing.. BUT the lord is teaching me that this is his time and not mine and things will happen according to his will. So the baptism was great, i baked an incredible cake and had to leave it in the oven while we went to look for Joana and Yes.. i knew this would happen.,. the elders ruined it!!! my poor little cake. It was depressing but still SO good.. It was like a Brownie cake. yeah.. yum.
Yesterday we were supposed to have 2 baptisms.. but one fell because of the young mans mom. UGH. So we met Ian last Sunday at church. He was there with a friend and said he loved church.. so we thought... OH yeah, baptism. We tried to call him during the week and his phone was turned off. we didn´t have his address and we had no idea what to do. Magically through the power of prayer ANYTHING is possible and we got his address through the vine and went to his house on Saturday to teach him the first lesson and invite him to be baptized the next day.. this is the life of missionary work. I love it. BAPTIZE. When we invited him he said yes instantly. The mom said yes and everyone was agreeable. So- yesterday morning we got a call from a friend of Ian and they said you need to call Ian because his mom won´t let him be baptized today.. We called she said, no it is too soon. After a 15 minute long phone call she still said no. She we tried everything.. we passed by house and she was sleeping and couldn´t talk to us.. we talked to ian at church and he still wanted to be baptized but not with out the permission of his mom.. clearly. duh. SO long story short.. He will probably be baptized this next week.
Other than this, i´ve got nothing.. I am sorry.. Today for Pday we are going to Cristo Rei.. It should be pretty amazing. I am sure. It was zone pday but then it was cancelled.. So It will be just Irmã and me.
The weather is getting pretty cold and i still need to buy warm clothes.. like everything.. boots, coat, scarfs.. i should have just brought this stuff with me. I don´t know what i was thinking. Oh man.. Remember i talked about that guy Leonardo Cavalho.. He served a mission when President Meeks was in Porto.. Well Leonardo gave me his email but i forgot it today. shoot. I am sorry. Tell Brother Meeks he wants to get in contact with him and next Monday i will remember to bring his email with me.
I am so grateful for all of you. I love you, i love this gospel. It is true. I know it with all my heart. I am grateful for the simplicity of the gospel. It is not complicated. We have commandments for a reason. Keep them! Read the scriptures.. We teach so many people about OLÁ. Orar- pray, Ler- Read, Assistir na Igreja( I bet i spelled that wrong. Sorry)- Go to church! We have to do all three of these things to stay close to the Lord. It is so simple.. so do it. We are working towards eternal life people. Take Care my loved ones!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
So this week, honestly i don´t even have that much to say.. sorry. For starters I had a baptism yesterday. yay.. Her name is Joana.. a mom of 3 and she is from cape Verde.. i think.. Her baptism was set for 6pm last night and she wasn´t at the chapel and she wasn´t answering her phone.. so we obviously left everyone at the chapel to go find her.. we went to her house, she was there with her daughter and said i can´t be baptized because i just got home from the hospital. my daughter is sick and needs to stay inside, blah blah blah... We prayed, got her ready and her daughter ready and She was baptized at 9pm last night.. I am learning patience for reals out here.. Wow.. waiting on people.. well you all know.. just isn´t my thing.. BUT the lord is teaching me that this is his time and not mine and things will happen according to his will. So the baptism was great, i baked an incredible cake and had to leave it in the oven while we went to look for Joana and Yes.. i knew this would happen.,. the elders ruined it!!! my poor little cake. It was depressing but still SO good.. It was like a Brownie cake. yeah.. yum.
Yesterday we were supposed to have 2 baptisms.. but one fell because of the young mans mom. UGH. So we met Ian last Sunday at church. He was there with a friend and said he loved church.. so we thought... OH yeah, baptism. We tried to call him during the week and his phone was turned off. we didn´t have his address and we had no idea what to do. Magically through the power of prayer ANYTHING is possible and we got his address through the vine and went to his house on Saturday to teach him the first lesson and invite him to be baptized the next day.. this is the life of missionary work. I love it. BAPTIZE. When we invited him he said yes instantly. The mom said yes and everyone was agreeable. So- yesterday morning we got a call from a friend of Ian and they said you need to call Ian because his mom won´t let him be baptized today.. We called she said, no it is too soon. After a 15 minute long phone call she still said no. She we tried everything.. we passed by house and she was sleeping and couldn´t talk to us.. we talked to ian at church and he still wanted to be baptized but not with out the permission of his mom.. clearly. duh. SO long story short.. He will probably be baptized this next week.
Other than this, i´ve got nothing.. I am sorry.. Today for Pday we are going to Cristo Rei.. It should be pretty amazing. I am sure. It was zone pday but then it was cancelled.. So It will be just Irmã and me.
The weather is getting pretty cold and i still need to buy warm clothes.. like everything.. boots, coat, scarfs.. i should have just brought this stuff with me. I don´t know what i was thinking. Oh man.. Remember i talked about that guy Leonardo Cavalho.. He served a mission when President Meeks was in Porto.. Well Leonardo gave me his email but i forgot it today. shoot. I am sorry. Tell Brother Meeks he wants to get in contact with him and next Monday i will remember to bring his email with me.
I am so grateful for all of you. I love you, i love this gospel. It is true. I know it with all my heart. I am grateful for the simplicity of the gospel. It is not complicated. We have commandments for a reason. Keep them! Read the scriptures.. We teach so many people about OLÁ. Orar- pray, Ler- Read, Assistir na Igreja( I bet i spelled that wrong. Sorry)- Go to church! We have to do all three of these things to stay close to the Lord. It is so simple.. so do it. We are working towards eternal life people. Take Care my loved ones!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, October 31, 2011
Ear ache... Biting kids... Baptism!!!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
I can´t stop singing ´This is Halloween, This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...´ oh how i miss Halloween in the states. I am SURE my comp thinks i am crazy.. ha ha We both love Halloween and can´t stop talking about how amazing Halloween is in the united states. In Brazil they don´t celebrate it and she wishes they did.
Mom.. Thank you for the package. Loved the plates, napkins, treats, letters from all of you and the ward. The pictures from the primary. I have so many to thank. Tell everyone thank you for me! Oh the peanut butter and chocolate stuff is amazing. The peanut butter here isn´t bad.. it just isn´t American peanut butter. But i will enjoy while i am here in Portugal. It won´t last forever. I also loved the church news. Thank you for being so thoughtful mom. I was actually at the mission office this week and that is why i got your package. Otherwise i would have had to wait until our zone conference in the next few weeks. I got your package because I went to the hospital twice in Lisboa and it is right by the mission office.. but it wasn´t serious. i promise. chill mom.
SO- i´ve got a lot to chat about this week. For reals. Last Monday morning i started to have an ear ache but i didn´t think much of it. By lunch time i was having a hard time chewing and opening my mouth. The pain in my ear was down in my jaw and slightly in my neck. My ear was starting to swell up and then it shut completely. The pain was indescribable. I took some meds to help and i thought the pain would pass. Well.. guess what? It didn´t. By Wednesday i couldn´t handle the pain anymore so i went to the hospital with one of the mission couples here and I got some meds and the doctor said if i needed to come back i could but the meds should help with the pain. For the next few days i didn´t sleep. I couldn´t think, let alone in Portuguese, it was hard for me to focus during lessons and my face started to go numb (weird), so we returned to the hospital on Friday. There the doctor stook at vacuum in my ear, sucked the nasty stuff, i screamed and left the hospital with 4 new prescriptions. ha ha By about Saturday the pain was going away and i was feeling much better. Through all of this last week we still baptized!!!!!! YAY!!!!
Yesterday we had a baptism for Atanasio. He is 18 years old and lives with his mom and sisters. He works to help bring money into the home and he is just a good kid. His baptism was at 9pm because he had to work.. but we will baptize at any hour for peoples salvation here. We are trying to teach his mom and sisters this week, we´ll see what the lord has in store for them but we are really excited.
Umm... During a lesson this week a little boy bit my finger and i screamed.. obviously because it HURT.. and you know what... yeah, the mom did NOTHING about it.. The parenting here is so different than in the united states. I just had to laugh it off because what else am i supposed to do with this amazing name tag on my chest.. oh wait.. wanna know why he bit me? So we were praying, and the little boy was trying to get into my backpack. So i held my hand on the zipper to wait until after the prayer to help him and he decided he would bite me because he wasn´t getting his way.. He is probably 2. Man..
Question- Has Amy received her call yet? What the news with her??? Fill. me.in. I am so excited for her!
I feel like i have so much more to say, but the brain has put a hault on my thoughts. Sorry. So mom.. i am fine. i promise. I am still on the meds until this ear ache completely passes but i am definitely being taken care of. The mission is the best place to be. I think i will just stay out here forever. mkay?
oh yeah.. I am still not fluent. in case you are wondering. One of our investigators asked me to say the closing prayer with him because it is funny when i talk. ha ha shame shame shame. I neeed to be fluent.
I love you all.. i hope you have a fun night tonight! Take pictures. I am off to shopping!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
I can´t stop singing ´This is Halloween, This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...´ oh how i miss Halloween in the states. I am SURE my comp thinks i am crazy.. ha ha We both love Halloween and can´t stop talking about how amazing Halloween is in the united states. In Brazil they don´t celebrate it and she wishes they did.
Mom.. Thank you for the package. Loved the plates, napkins, treats, letters from all of you and the ward. The pictures from the primary. I have so many to thank. Tell everyone thank you for me! Oh the peanut butter and chocolate stuff is amazing. The peanut butter here isn´t bad.. it just isn´t American peanut butter. But i will enjoy while i am here in Portugal. It won´t last forever. I also loved the church news. Thank you for being so thoughtful mom. I was actually at the mission office this week and that is why i got your package. Otherwise i would have had to wait until our zone conference in the next few weeks. I got your package because I went to the hospital twice in Lisboa and it is right by the mission office.. but it wasn´t serious. i promise. chill mom.
SO- i´ve got a lot to chat about this week. For reals. Last Monday morning i started to have an ear ache but i didn´t think much of it. By lunch time i was having a hard time chewing and opening my mouth. The pain in my ear was down in my jaw and slightly in my neck. My ear was starting to swell up and then it shut completely. The pain was indescribable. I took some meds to help and i thought the pain would pass. Well.. guess what? It didn´t. By Wednesday i couldn´t handle the pain anymore so i went to the hospital with one of the mission couples here and I got some meds and the doctor said if i needed to come back i could but the meds should help with the pain. For the next few days i didn´t sleep. I couldn´t think, let alone in Portuguese, it was hard for me to focus during lessons and my face started to go numb (weird), so we returned to the hospital on Friday. There the doctor stook at vacuum in my ear, sucked the nasty stuff, i screamed and left the hospital with 4 new prescriptions. ha ha By about Saturday the pain was going away and i was feeling much better. Through all of this last week we still baptized!!!!!! YAY!!!!
Yesterday we had a baptism for Atanasio. He is 18 years old and lives with his mom and sisters. He works to help bring money into the home and he is just a good kid. His baptism was at 9pm because he had to work.. but we will baptize at any hour for peoples salvation here. We are trying to teach his mom and sisters this week, we´ll see what the lord has in store for them but we are really excited.
Umm... During a lesson this week a little boy bit my finger and i screamed.. obviously because it HURT.. and you know what... yeah, the mom did NOTHING about it.. The parenting here is so different than in the united states. I just had to laugh it off because what else am i supposed to do with this amazing name tag on my chest.. oh wait.. wanna know why he bit me? So we were praying, and the little boy was trying to get into my backpack. So i held my hand on the zipper to wait until after the prayer to help him and he decided he would bite me because he wasn´t getting his way.. He is probably 2. Man..
Question- Has Amy received her call yet? What the news with her??? Fill. me.in. I am so excited for her!
I feel like i have so much more to say, but the brain has put a hault on my thoughts. Sorry. So mom.. i am fine. i promise. I am still on the meds until this ear ache completely passes but i am definitely being taken care of. The mission is the best place to be. I think i will just stay out here forever. mkay?
oh yeah.. I am still not fluent. in case you are wondering. One of our investigators asked me to say the closing prayer with him because it is funny when i talk. ha ha shame shame shame. I neeed to be fluent.
I love you all.. i hope you have a fun night tonight! Take pictures. I am off to shopping!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, October 24, 2011
The Greatest Calling
Heeelllloo..
Just in case you all didn´t know i have the greatest calling in the world right now. THE GREATEST CALLING!! Everyday i see miracles. Miracles that only come from a loving heavenly father. There was one day this week Irmã Dos Santos and i were contacting in the street, we contacted 4 people in a row that didn´t believe in god nor cared to hear about our message.. We asked to pray with all of them and only one let us pray with them but wouldn´t meet with us another time. It was a really hard morning. I thought to myself.. did we do something wrong? Did we not pray on time? Did we not talk to someone on the road that heavenly father put in our path? I know.. i am nurotic. ha ha sooo.. Later that night we were about ready to go home and we contacted this cute pregnant lady. She is Joseph Smith.. Seriously.. ha ha but her name is Sonia. She said every church she attends she feels like there is more out there. She wants to find a church with everything but there are too many churchs to look into. OH MY GOSH.. Heavenly Father was just testing our patience that morning and he was preparing us to meet Sonia. We have an appointment to meet with her tonight and i am pretty sure she is elect.
Yesterday we had a baptism!!!! His name is Arlindo and he was a battle to get into the water. ha ha Last Sunday he came with us to stake conference and loved it, but then this week when we tried to meet with him he never had time. Finally on Thursday we had our first lesson with him and invited him to be baptized on Sunday. He was shocked and said i really need to think about this. We said great, but we should probably pray about this right now and ask Heavenly Father. So we did and then he said yes. PRAY IS AMAZING. If there is one thing President Torgan is teaching us right now it is the power of prayer. It is so real. so so real and we are entitled to revelation. All of us.. obviously for different situations but we have the opportunity to communicate with heavenly father. He will only help us if we ask for it. So- Arlindo.. his baptism was yesterday and pretty much it is a guarantee for something to not run smoothly. Irmã Dos Santos and i started to fill up the baptismal font an hour before the baptism and it was about 15 before the baptism was going to start and the font was not filling up. I realized we forgot to use the drain stopper. ha ha whoops! So i ran to get the other Elders (because in our chapel we have 2 other wards and 2 sets of Elders) so i ran to grab the ZL´s to help us and there was no way the font would fill in 15 minutes.. so Elder Hope, me and Irmã Dos Santos started to fill up pans in the kitchen and bathroom and we filled the font right up.. but the baptism had to start 30 minutes late unfortunately. ha ha it was hilarious.
oh- this week Irmã and i witnessed a drug bust on the street. We were sitting on the curb making phone calls and all of a sudden two big guys in black shirts grabbed this guy.. threw him against a building and they took drugs right out of his pockets. He was escorted in a car with some other big guys and that was it. Everyone went back to minding their own business.
o i have so much i want to say about this week but so little time. This drunk guy contacted us in the road the other day. He was riding his bike and we watched him almost get hit by 2 cars. He said good afternoon he strated to blab about nothing.. eating meat and christmas and santa clause. we were trying to leave but he kept asking us questions. Finally, i said can we pray with you. We want to bless your day. He set his bike down and got really serious. I said is there anything you need in your life right now? he said i really need to stop drinking. His eyes filled with tears, he kissed our hands and called us angels. It was marvelous. We are going to start teaching him and help him get his life in order.
This work is a privilege. Absolute privilege. I am so grateful to be here. to help others straighten their lives. Oh testimony is overwhelming BIG!!! We are so lucky to have this gospel in our hands. Do not take it for granted. DO NOT! I did before the mission and i am eternally grateful for the gospel. Stay strong. I love you all!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Just in case you all didn´t know i have the greatest calling in the world right now. THE GREATEST CALLING!! Everyday i see miracles. Miracles that only come from a loving heavenly father. There was one day this week Irmã Dos Santos and i were contacting in the street, we contacted 4 people in a row that didn´t believe in god nor cared to hear about our message.. We asked to pray with all of them and only one let us pray with them but wouldn´t meet with us another time. It was a really hard morning. I thought to myself.. did we do something wrong? Did we not pray on time? Did we not talk to someone on the road that heavenly father put in our path? I know.. i am nurotic. ha ha sooo.. Later that night we were about ready to go home and we contacted this cute pregnant lady. She is Joseph Smith.. Seriously.. ha ha but her name is Sonia. She said every church she attends she feels like there is more out there. She wants to find a church with everything but there are too many churchs to look into. OH MY GOSH.. Heavenly Father was just testing our patience that morning and he was preparing us to meet Sonia. We have an appointment to meet with her tonight and i am pretty sure she is elect.
Yesterday we had a baptism!!!! His name is Arlindo and he was a battle to get into the water. ha ha Last Sunday he came with us to stake conference and loved it, but then this week when we tried to meet with him he never had time. Finally on Thursday we had our first lesson with him and invited him to be baptized on Sunday. He was shocked and said i really need to think about this. We said great, but we should probably pray about this right now and ask Heavenly Father. So we did and then he said yes. PRAY IS AMAZING. If there is one thing President Torgan is teaching us right now it is the power of prayer. It is so real. so so real and we are entitled to revelation. All of us.. obviously for different situations but we have the opportunity to communicate with heavenly father. He will only help us if we ask for it. So- Arlindo.. his baptism was yesterday and pretty much it is a guarantee for something to not run smoothly. Irmã Dos Santos and i started to fill up the baptismal font an hour before the baptism and it was about 15 before the baptism was going to start and the font was not filling up. I realized we forgot to use the drain stopper. ha ha whoops! So i ran to get the other Elders (because in our chapel we have 2 other wards and 2 sets of Elders) so i ran to grab the ZL´s to help us and there was no way the font would fill in 15 minutes.. so Elder Hope, me and Irmã Dos Santos started to fill up pans in the kitchen and bathroom and we filled the font right up.. but the baptism had to start 30 minutes late unfortunately. ha ha it was hilarious.
oh- this week Irmã and i witnessed a drug bust on the street. We were sitting on the curb making phone calls and all of a sudden two big guys in black shirts grabbed this guy.. threw him against a building and they took drugs right out of his pockets. He was escorted in a car with some other big guys and that was it. Everyone went back to minding their own business.
o i have so much i want to say about this week but so little time. This drunk guy contacted us in the road the other day. He was riding his bike and we watched him almost get hit by 2 cars. He said good afternoon he strated to blab about nothing.. eating meat and christmas and santa clause. we were trying to leave but he kept asking us questions. Finally, i said can we pray with you. We want to bless your day. He set his bike down and got really serious. I said is there anything you need in your life right now? he said i really need to stop drinking. His eyes filled with tears, he kissed our hands and called us angels. It was marvelous. We are going to start teaching him and help him get his life in order.
This work is a privilege. Absolute privilege. I am so grateful to be here. to help others straighten their lives. Oh testimony is overwhelming BIG!!! We are so lucky to have this gospel in our hands. Do not take it for granted. DO NOT! I did before the mission and i am eternally grateful for the gospel. Stay strong. I love you all!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, October 17, 2011
Rolling Right Along
Happy Fall!! It really should be fall, but it is still so hot here. We are in summer... I like it but i want it to chill down for a bit. We live right by the coast and the smell of the ocean is divine every morning. We live close to Cristo Rei and the bridge that looks like San Fransisco. kinda.. This last week flew by.. flew right on by. I love my companion Irmã Dos Santos. Did i mention last week she is in her second transfer!!! ha ha and hello, there is me.. in my third transfer! Our zone is young in the field. Our ZL´s have been out 4 transfers and 5 transfers. youngans.. and i think this is the first time being ZL´s..Others in our zone have 3, 4, 6 transfers under their belt. It´s amazing the miracles Heavenly Father puts in our path when we are so humble and relying on the spirit 24/7.
Sweet Irmã Dos Santos does not know the area and feels the exact same way i did, when i stayed in Odivelas and had to show my new comp around, but we saw miracles this week!! We marked 3 people for baptism in the next 2 weeks. One of our investigators name is Nelson.. He has been taught by the Irmãs for some time and should have been baptized a few weeks ago, but he bailed on the Irmãs. So Irmã and i felt like we needed to pass by this week and visit him. We taught him about the gospel of Christ, faith, baptism so on and so forth. After the lesson we invited him to be baptized with a date.. He said no, no.. I need to think about this and get back to you later. I said can we kneel right now and pray about this? You need to know from Heavenly Father this is what he wants from you.. Nelson said. yes.. of course... So we knelt down and one at a time each of us prayed.. Irmã prayed, then me and Nelson. When i prayed.. i paused for like 20 seconds.. I wanted Nelson to feel the power of the holy ghost.. right after Nelson prayed.. Nelson said, okay.. I say yes.. he felt so good and knew this is what he needs to do! It was incredible.. He is marked for baptism on the 30th of this month. The spirit is truly amazing and indescribable.. People need to learn how to feel.. We can teach all day and preach all day, but it does nothing if you can´t feel the power of the holy ghost. Man, I love this work!
We marked another young man Atanasio. He is 17 years old and so ready for this.. He loves church and youth center we have. He can meet other youth and hang out and play games.. The mission couple also teaches lessons during the week. He will be baptized next sunday on the 23rd. The other guy we marked is older and his name is João. He knows all of this is true.. he just needs to act.. and he now he is.. He will be baptized on the 30th too.
This week we ate with a member in our ward. The couple served in Porto and i immediately asked who their mission president was and they said President Meeks and Sister Meeks. they were so excited when i told them i knew him.. the couple is Leandro and Marina Cavalio... Marina´s dad died while she was on her mission and she said The Meeks will for sure remember her.. They told me to send Brother and sister meeks their love and i took a picture with them and i will try to send it home soon.
Yesterday was Stake Conference and we had the opportunity to hear from President and Irmã Torgan.. I cannot tell you enough how incredible he is.. He just talks like a general authority.. I have no doubts he will be a general authority. He knows exactly how to lead this work simply and powerfully. He makes everything seem like cake.. You all know my love for him. He is a machine. for reals.
So quickly.. this week i was studying of course in the bible and i was reading Romans 15.. This should be the new relief society thing.. ha ha Service of course. in verse 1 and 2 this is our calling.. serve serve serve.. Also in Acts 20:35 it talks about giving and then receiving.. I wish i could explain better but my time is running out. Go read it and study it. I hope you learn something to help others in this life.
I love you all! I am so grateful for you. Hang in there. Keep strong with scripture study, prayer and temple attendance.. You´re all fantastic. XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Sweet Irmã Dos Santos does not know the area and feels the exact same way i did, when i stayed in Odivelas and had to show my new comp around, but we saw miracles this week!! We marked 3 people for baptism in the next 2 weeks. One of our investigators name is Nelson.. He has been taught by the Irmãs for some time and should have been baptized a few weeks ago, but he bailed on the Irmãs. So Irmã and i felt like we needed to pass by this week and visit him. We taught him about the gospel of Christ, faith, baptism so on and so forth. After the lesson we invited him to be baptized with a date.. He said no, no.. I need to think about this and get back to you later. I said can we kneel right now and pray about this? You need to know from Heavenly Father this is what he wants from you.. Nelson said. yes.. of course... So we knelt down and one at a time each of us prayed.. Irmã prayed, then me and Nelson. When i prayed.. i paused for like 20 seconds.. I wanted Nelson to feel the power of the holy ghost.. right after Nelson prayed.. Nelson said, okay.. I say yes.. he felt so good and knew this is what he needs to do! It was incredible.. He is marked for baptism on the 30th of this month. The spirit is truly amazing and indescribable.. People need to learn how to feel.. We can teach all day and preach all day, but it does nothing if you can´t feel the power of the holy ghost. Man, I love this work!
We marked another young man Atanasio. He is 17 years old and so ready for this.. He loves church and youth center we have. He can meet other youth and hang out and play games.. The mission couple also teaches lessons during the week. He will be baptized next sunday on the 23rd. The other guy we marked is older and his name is João. He knows all of this is true.. he just needs to act.. and he now he is.. He will be baptized on the 30th too.
This week we ate with a member in our ward. The couple served in Porto and i immediately asked who their mission president was and they said President Meeks and Sister Meeks. they were so excited when i told them i knew him.. the couple is Leandro and Marina Cavalio... Marina´s dad died while she was on her mission and she said The Meeks will for sure remember her.. They told me to send Brother and sister meeks their love and i took a picture with them and i will try to send it home soon.
Yesterday was Stake Conference and we had the opportunity to hear from President and Irmã Torgan.. I cannot tell you enough how incredible he is.. He just talks like a general authority.. I have no doubts he will be a general authority. He knows exactly how to lead this work simply and powerfully. He makes everything seem like cake.. You all know my love for him. He is a machine. for reals.
So quickly.. this week i was studying of course in the bible and i was reading Romans 15.. This should be the new relief society thing.. ha ha Service of course. in verse 1 and 2 this is our calling.. serve serve serve.. Also in Acts 20:35 it talks about giving and then receiving.. I wish i could explain better but my time is running out. Go read it and study it. I hope you learn something to help others in this life.
I love you all! I am so grateful for you. Hang in there. Keep strong with scripture study, prayer and temple attendance.. You´re all fantastic. XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, October 10, 2011
TRANSFERRED!
I was transferred today!!! My first transfer leaving the only area i know.. It is weird.. Irmã Mortensen and i were at a bakery just taking our time, looking around this morning because usually transfer calls come later in the afternoon so we just dilly dallied around Odivelas.. Well The secretaries called at 11am and said I needed to pack my bags NOW and it would be great if i was done by noon.. WHAT!!!! We ran home.. I packed in 45 minutes and now i am in Almada.. Weird.. I was so sad to leave Irmã Mortensen.. I LOVE her.. She and i had the best time together.. She helped me throw everything in my suit cases, pack up and leave. I LOVED Odivelas.. I will miss that area SO MUCH!!! Now i am serving with Irmã Dos Santos. She is from Brazil and do not worry.. she only speaks like 2 words of English. ha ha This transfer i will definitely be learning the language. I have been praying and praying to learn this language and whelp, Heavenly Father sent me to the best companion to learn from, soo.. It´s going to be great. Almada is a big city (from what i can tell) and pretty close to the ocean.. I think i am going to love it here.
Last week.. where to begin?? We had two baptisms yesterday! It was fantastic! We baptized Mariano who is from Guinea. We found him as we were contacting in the streets. He was pretty much elect from the moment we met him and heavenly father has been preparing him for a really long time.. His baptism was right after sacrament meeting and then Danny the 13 year old boy was baptized too, but his story is kinda confusing.. His mom lives in Odivelas but on the weekend he stays with is aunt and uncle in Alverca and goes to church with them because his mom works... So Irmã and i taught him during the week in Odivelas because he was home and didn´t work as much. Anyway.. moving on, we got to leave our area yesterday and go to Alverca for the baptism.. Another set of Elders from Povoá had a baptism too for a young boy.. It was wonderful! Side note: Danny´s baptism almost didn´t happen because his aunt said he wasn´t ready and tried to convince his mom, us and the bishop that he can´t be baptized. She called us and was furious and said there is no way.. I do not authorize this baptism.. It was a fight, but in the end.. the spirit won her over and Danny was baptized.. Satan finds any opportunity to stop baptisms.. It gets really old and we just have to prepare ourselves every time. Ugh.
We also passed by Buneca´s house to see how she was doing, because the spirit told us to (obviously) and Freak, She opened the door, rolled her eyes.. then gave us a hug, smiled and was thrilled to see us.. ummmmm yeah.. bipolar.. ha ha i have NO idea what goes through that mind of hers. I am sad i am not in that area anymore to help her get baptized but some day in the future she will be baptized! She has to get the devil out of her. like now. We had 7 or so investigators progressing last week, it was great.. Irmã Mortensen will baptize them all.. I have no worries.
I am glad you are doing well, getting ready for Halloween.. I wish they celebrated Halloween here.. They just take a lot of holidays, close up shop and go to the beach.. ha ha So the work is still growing and i love it. I love seeing the change in peoples lives when they find happiness.. It is sad to leave the people i helped baptize but i just have more work to do here in Portugal. I am excited for what it to come. Family- pray and ready diligently every day.. Helaman 5:12... always rely on our savior. Turn to him for EVERYTHING! I need this mission more than it needs me. I am learning so many little things that make the biggest difference in my life. Don´t take the gospel for granted. Use it in everything you do. I love you all!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Last week.. where to begin?? We had two baptisms yesterday! It was fantastic! We baptized Mariano who is from Guinea. We found him as we were contacting in the streets. He was pretty much elect from the moment we met him and heavenly father has been preparing him for a really long time.. His baptism was right after sacrament meeting and then Danny the 13 year old boy was baptized too, but his story is kinda confusing.. His mom lives in Odivelas but on the weekend he stays with is aunt and uncle in Alverca and goes to church with them because his mom works... So Irmã and i taught him during the week in Odivelas because he was home and didn´t work as much. Anyway.. moving on, we got to leave our area yesterday and go to Alverca for the baptism.. Another set of Elders from Povoá had a baptism too for a young boy.. It was wonderful! Side note: Danny´s baptism almost didn´t happen because his aunt said he wasn´t ready and tried to convince his mom, us and the bishop that he can´t be baptized. She called us and was furious and said there is no way.. I do not authorize this baptism.. It was a fight, but in the end.. the spirit won her over and Danny was baptized.. Satan finds any opportunity to stop baptisms.. It gets really old and we just have to prepare ourselves every time. Ugh.
We also passed by Buneca´s house to see how she was doing, because the spirit told us to (obviously) and Freak, She opened the door, rolled her eyes.. then gave us a hug, smiled and was thrilled to see us.. ummmmm yeah.. bipolar.. ha ha i have NO idea what goes through that mind of hers. I am sad i am not in that area anymore to help her get baptized but some day in the future she will be baptized! She has to get the devil out of her. like now. We had 7 or so investigators progressing last week, it was great.. Irmã Mortensen will baptize them all.. I have no worries.
I am glad you are doing well, getting ready for Halloween.. I wish they celebrated Halloween here.. They just take a lot of holidays, close up shop and go to the beach.. ha ha So the work is still growing and i love it. I love seeing the change in peoples lives when they find happiness.. It is sad to leave the people i helped baptize but i just have more work to do here in Portugal. I am excited for what it to come. Family- pray and ready diligently every day.. Helaman 5:12... always rely on our savior. Turn to him for EVERYTHING! I need this mission more than it needs me. I am learning so many little things that make the biggest difference in my life. Don´t take the gospel for granted. Use it in everything you do. I love you all!
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, October 3, 2011
Best Conference Ever!
Family!
Hello! Wasn´t this the best conference weekend ever! The general authroities don´t beet around the bush anymore.. It´s good for us and the youth. We need directness in these days. Half of my zone went to Benfica at the mission office to watch conference.. there is a chapel right next door where our investigators could watch too. I missed the Saturday session because we were working on having a baptism Saturday night, which ended up falling. But our investigator Marcello is working on gaining a testimony of Joesph Smith.. that is the only thing he is struggling with. We are trying to pray for him and help him with what he needs.. We had another baptism planned for Saturday which fell too. We have been teaching this young man Danny. he is 13 years old and has been taught by the missionaries for about 2 years.. he still doesn´t feel ready for baptism and wants to wait until November or something like that.. it is frustrating.. We will just wait and see what the lord has in store for him coming up.. So again this last week, no baptisms but we have other progressing investigators which is great!!!
Confrenece.. okay.. Being a missionary and watching conference is so much better than being home.. I feel like this was the first time i actually was excited, had a desire to watched and learned something from every talk. My favorite talk was by Tad R. Callister about the bible and book of mormon. Irmã and i have so many investigators that needed this talk.. He made it so simple as to why we use them together. I can´t wait to print that talk out and give it to our investigators.. I also loved President Monson.. he was so animated with the rolling eyes and long pauses this conference.. He is right when he talked about people thinking it is the 10 suggestions from God and not really commandments anymore. For some reason people just don´t take them seriously or they think it is okay to live this one and not the other.. NOT TRUE.. So many slackers in this world unfortunately. I like how he said the storms will always beat on our doors, but we will be better equipped if we have the gospel in our core. We must always pray.. I can´t tell you how many times i pray every day.. every moment. We will never make it through this life if we don´t communicate with Heavenly Father and rely on our savior.
I liked the talk from Randall K. Benett about having only 2 choices.. we follow Christ or we follow the world.. it is that simple. We need to make the decision now.. There is no gray area.. Man- i wish we could chat about this all day. I hope you all got answers and learned something from Conference.. I am so excited for Provo 2 temple.. How lucky are we to live in Utah and be so close to the temples. Take advantage of it. It is the greatest blessing we have on this earth. I miss it so much.
Sorry i don´t have much else to report on.. Transfers are next Monday. Not sure what is going to happen.. eeekkk.. I love you all dearly!!!!
Take Care XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Hello! Wasn´t this the best conference weekend ever! The general authroities don´t beet around the bush anymore.. It´s good for us and the youth. We need directness in these days. Half of my zone went to Benfica at the mission office to watch conference.. there is a chapel right next door where our investigators could watch too. I missed the Saturday session because we were working on having a baptism Saturday night, which ended up falling. But our investigator Marcello is working on gaining a testimony of Joesph Smith.. that is the only thing he is struggling with. We are trying to pray for him and help him with what he needs.. We had another baptism planned for Saturday which fell too. We have been teaching this young man Danny. he is 13 years old and has been taught by the missionaries for about 2 years.. he still doesn´t feel ready for baptism and wants to wait until November or something like that.. it is frustrating.. We will just wait and see what the lord has in store for him coming up.. So again this last week, no baptisms but we have other progressing investigators which is great!!!
Confrenece.. okay.. Being a missionary and watching conference is so much better than being home.. I feel like this was the first time i actually was excited, had a desire to watched and learned something from every talk. My favorite talk was by Tad R. Callister about the bible and book of mormon. Irmã and i have so many investigators that needed this talk.. He made it so simple as to why we use them together. I can´t wait to print that talk out and give it to our investigators.. I also loved President Monson.. he was so animated with the rolling eyes and long pauses this conference.. He is right when he talked about people thinking it is the 10 suggestions from God and not really commandments anymore. For some reason people just don´t take them seriously or they think it is okay to live this one and not the other.. NOT TRUE.. So many slackers in this world unfortunately. I like how he said the storms will always beat on our doors, but we will be better equipped if we have the gospel in our core. We must always pray.. I can´t tell you how many times i pray every day.. every moment. We will never make it through this life if we don´t communicate with Heavenly Father and rely on our savior.
I liked the talk from Randall K. Benett about having only 2 choices.. we follow Christ or we follow the world.. it is that simple. We need to make the decision now.. There is no gray area.. Man- i wish we could chat about this all day. I hope you all got answers and learned something from Conference.. I am so excited for Provo 2 temple.. How lucky are we to live in Utah and be so close to the temples. Take advantage of it. It is the greatest blessing we have on this earth. I miss it so much.
Sorry i don´t have much else to report on.. Transfers are next Monday. Not sure what is going to happen.. eeekkk.. I love you all dearly!!!!
Take Care XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The Power Of Good And Evil
Olá.. September is pretty much.. What the?? I can´t even believe it. It is almost October which means conference!!!! YAY!!! Out in the field here we LOVE conference. Irmã and i have had a countdown for the last 25 days.. We are so excited.. For the Saturday session we are probably going to a members house to watch conference and then on Sunday we are going to Benfica with our zone to watch conference at the chapel there.
Last week i meant to mention that i got your letters from Park City. Thank you so much. I loved hearing from the whole fam! I am glad you all had fun.. It sounded like a blast.
This past week was long and crazy of course because there is not a normal day out here. Irmã Mortensen and i went to another church.. it was weird and different and i definitely didn´t like it. Everyone prays out loud and they all sounded whiny. We went because our bishop met a girl from this church and invited him to hear their message.. he said i will listen if you listen to my message and then he sent us to go meet them.. ha ha We tried to have a lesson with the church afterwards but it led to them not letting us read from the book of mormon and fighting us with scriptures from the bible. sooo yeah.
Yesterday at church was definitely an adventure. Randomly Buneca showed up and then tried to leave because she said she didn´t feel good inside the chapel. So she went outside and started talking to herself. So Irmã went to talk to her and said are you okay.. she said i am talking to the devil. He said i shouldn´t go inside. I don´t want to be here.. long story short, Buneca said the devil told her to break the chairs in her house and all the dishes too.. so she did.. We tried to give her, well not we.. but a priesthood holder tried to give her a blessing and she wouldn´t have it.. we couldn´t force her to do anything so she left and still have the devil in her.. looopy.. I honestly cannot comprehend being so low that Satan has that much influence in your life.. This week i have been reading in Moses.. The story of Moses walking with God face to face.. when God leaves, Satan tries to tell Moses to worship him.. Moses knows better not to follow him, but the second he has just the slightest doubt he sees the gates of hell open.. The powers of Satan are SO real. It is insane. Sometimes i really miss the Utah bubble. Culture shock is sinking in for reals.
There is a family in our ward who was baptized at the beginning of the year who´s daughter was taken away from them because of their living conditions. They have 3 girls total but only one was taken away and the government is saying that they have to wait at least 6 months until they can talk about her returning back to their home.. It is so sad. The poor mom just cries and cries whenever we go visit her. I done blame her so i cry with her. They are trying to stay humble and rely on the lord. They said ever since they were baptized they have dealt with a lot of opposition. But they are strong and can make it through this. It is hard to watch the situations people have to go through. I want to help so badly, but all i can do is pray from them.
We didn´t have a baptism this week. We worked so hard, had so many appointments, tried to baptize two people.. one didn´t show up for church and the other still said he wasn´t prepared. Irmã and i met with him in our chapel until 10:45 last night hoping we would have an 11pm baptism(it has happened before), but our investigator said when God tells him he is prepared, he will be baptized. sooo.. we are just going to continue to pray.
President Torgan is doing big things in this mission and other missions are hearing about it.. they want to know what the secret is.. We had a huge conference with 4 other zones this week in Benfica. I am extremely blessed to be able to serve here with President and Irmã Torgan. They are very special people. They know exactly what they are doing and how to do it with the help of the lord. I know the revelation he is getting is from God. There is no way the things here could be done by man. no way. Sorry this is a little shorter than usual. I am out of time. I love you all. Take care.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Last week i meant to mention that i got your letters from Park City. Thank you so much. I loved hearing from the whole fam! I am glad you all had fun.. It sounded like a blast.
This past week was long and crazy of course because there is not a normal day out here. Irmã Mortensen and i went to another church.. it was weird and different and i definitely didn´t like it. Everyone prays out loud and they all sounded whiny. We went because our bishop met a girl from this church and invited him to hear their message.. he said i will listen if you listen to my message and then he sent us to go meet them.. ha ha We tried to have a lesson with the church afterwards but it led to them not letting us read from the book of mormon and fighting us with scriptures from the bible. sooo yeah.
Yesterday at church was definitely an adventure. Randomly Buneca showed up and then tried to leave because she said she didn´t feel good inside the chapel. So she went outside and started talking to herself. So Irmã went to talk to her and said are you okay.. she said i am talking to the devil. He said i shouldn´t go inside. I don´t want to be here.. long story short, Buneca said the devil told her to break the chairs in her house and all the dishes too.. so she did.. We tried to give her, well not we.. but a priesthood holder tried to give her a blessing and she wouldn´t have it.. we couldn´t force her to do anything so she left and still have the devil in her.. looopy.. I honestly cannot comprehend being so low that Satan has that much influence in your life.. This week i have been reading in Moses.. The story of Moses walking with God face to face.. when God leaves, Satan tries to tell Moses to worship him.. Moses knows better not to follow him, but the second he has just the slightest doubt he sees the gates of hell open.. The powers of Satan are SO real. It is insane. Sometimes i really miss the Utah bubble. Culture shock is sinking in for reals.
There is a family in our ward who was baptized at the beginning of the year who´s daughter was taken away from them because of their living conditions. They have 3 girls total but only one was taken away and the government is saying that they have to wait at least 6 months until they can talk about her returning back to their home.. It is so sad. The poor mom just cries and cries whenever we go visit her. I done blame her so i cry with her. They are trying to stay humble and rely on the lord. They said ever since they were baptized they have dealt with a lot of opposition. But they are strong and can make it through this. It is hard to watch the situations people have to go through. I want to help so badly, but all i can do is pray from them.
We didn´t have a baptism this week. We worked so hard, had so many appointments, tried to baptize two people.. one didn´t show up for church and the other still said he wasn´t prepared. Irmã and i met with him in our chapel until 10:45 last night hoping we would have an 11pm baptism(it has happened before), but our investigator said when God tells him he is prepared, he will be baptized. sooo.. we are just going to continue to pray.
President Torgan is doing big things in this mission and other missions are hearing about it.. they want to know what the secret is.. We had a huge conference with 4 other zones this week in Benfica. I am extremely blessed to be able to serve here with President and Irmã Torgan. They are very special people. They know exactly what they are doing and how to do it with the help of the lord. I know the revelation he is getting is from God. There is no way the things here could be done by man. no way. Sorry this is a little shorter than usual. I am out of time. I love you all. Take care.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The work is growing more & more
How is it kickin in Utah fam?? Ohhhh i love you all.. Thanks for the updates on life. Life here in Odivelas is great. I love this city so much. It is getting chilly here and i am about ready to start buying my winter clothes. weird.. Today I forgot my list of things i wanted to tell you in my apartment so i am sorry if i forget things and leave out details..
Oh, one thing there is a member in my ward who was an Elder in Porto when Brother Meeks was the mission President.. His name would be Elder Viera to brother meeks.. He told me to tell brother meeks hi for him.. Small world isn´t it??
Yesterday we had a baptism!! It was a wonderful woman named Irene. She is the mom of 4 kids and two of her kids have already been baptized.. one of which i was able to see.. Her son is Bruno.. he is 9yrs old.. This mom has been through a lot in her life and seriously needs this gospel. She has quit smoking and drinking cafe. She told us the other day that is a blessing from god that she has more money to buy food for her kinds instead of buying cigarettes. I love this girl..
We had another investigator marked to be baptized yesterday but it fell because of SATAN.. ughh.. This boys name is tomas.. He is 12 years old and came to church with us last week. He loved it. He got a duty to god book and was already working on it during the week. He was so excited to go to church again with us and to be baptized, but one day we showed up on his door step and he was a completely different person. He was not excited to see us and said i don´t want to be baptized anymore. I don´t want to got to church.. It is too early.. blah blah blah.. I sat in his living room and cried. his mom was all for signing the papers for him to be baptized but tomas just doesn´t want this right now.. My heart breaks for these people. I want them to feel the love of the savior and the happiness i feel from this gospel.
We have a bajillion new investigator this week. The work is growing more and more everyday. President Torgan has an incredible vision for Portugal. I love it! these next few weeks are going to really pick up..
I have officially had my culture shock with the gypsy culture. One new investigator we have she is 18 years old, has two kids, is homeless and lives in a car with her boy friend. Wow.. i was just speechless. What a sad life.. She and her boy friend and kids came to church yesterday and loved it!! We want to invite them to be baptized but they need to get married first. so the plan this week is to figure out how to get all this done asap. Everyday i thank heavenly father for blessing me to be born into the gospel, born in america and born into an incredible family. I don´t know how i would function any way else.
My companion is a rock star.. I love her.. She helps me all the time with the language and we just laugh and laugh together. Heavenly Father truly knew who i would need out here in this work. Irmã Mortensen is a doll.. mom- Irmã is from Miami.. But long story short her family lives in Texas now. I will try to send you more pictures of us and our investigators.
The language is still hard and i am not fluent, maybe next week.. ha ha or in a few months. I learn things everyday and i am always making improvement, but with patience and time some day i will speak fluently. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all so much. Later :)
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Oh, one thing there is a member in my ward who was an Elder in Porto when Brother Meeks was the mission President.. His name would be Elder Viera to brother meeks.. He told me to tell brother meeks hi for him.. Small world isn´t it??
Yesterday we had a baptism!! It was a wonderful woman named Irene. She is the mom of 4 kids and two of her kids have already been baptized.. one of which i was able to see.. Her son is Bruno.. he is 9yrs old.. This mom has been through a lot in her life and seriously needs this gospel. She has quit smoking and drinking cafe. She told us the other day that is a blessing from god that she has more money to buy food for her kinds instead of buying cigarettes. I love this girl..
We had another investigator marked to be baptized yesterday but it fell because of SATAN.. ughh.. This boys name is tomas.. He is 12 years old and came to church with us last week. He loved it. He got a duty to god book and was already working on it during the week. He was so excited to go to church again with us and to be baptized, but one day we showed up on his door step and he was a completely different person. He was not excited to see us and said i don´t want to be baptized anymore. I don´t want to got to church.. It is too early.. blah blah blah.. I sat in his living room and cried. his mom was all for signing the papers for him to be baptized but tomas just doesn´t want this right now.. My heart breaks for these people. I want them to feel the love of the savior and the happiness i feel from this gospel.
We have a bajillion new investigator this week. The work is growing more and more everyday. President Torgan has an incredible vision for Portugal. I love it! these next few weeks are going to really pick up..
I have officially had my culture shock with the gypsy culture. One new investigator we have she is 18 years old, has two kids, is homeless and lives in a car with her boy friend. Wow.. i was just speechless. What a sad life.. She and her boy friend and kids came to church yesterday and loved it!! We want to invite them to be baptized but they need to get married first. so the plan this week is to figure out how to get all this done asap. Everyday i thank heavenly father for blessing me to be born into the gospel, born in america and born into an incredible family. I don´t know how i would function any way else.
My companion is a rock star.. I love her.. She helps me all the time with the language and we just laugh and laugh together. Heavenly Father truly knew who i would need out here in this work. Irmã Mortensen is a doll.. mom- Irmã is from Miami.. But long story short her family lives in Texas now. I will try to send you more pictures of us and our investigators.
The language is still hard and i am not fluent, maybe next week.. ha ha or in a few months. I learn things everyday and i am always making improvement, but with patience and time some day i will speak fluently. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all so much. Later :)
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, September 12, 2011
HA HA HA....
Hiii-
It´s me again.. I feel like i was just here emailing you about last week.. Man.. The missionaries say time picks up every transfer and they are so right! I am already in my 3rd week of my 2nd transfer... AHHHHHH.. I honestly don´t even know where to start with this last week. My sweet fossil bag broke and i died! I was so sad. Remember how much i loved that bag? Now i use the cute bag carol gave me from Nordstrom and i love it. Thank you Carol.. Don´t worry Tanner, I am not using a backpack.. Never will.
Monday the zone leaders called an emergency zone meeting on pday! We went to the office in Benfica and talked about love for our investigators.. It was sad because obviously it is a big deal if we are having a meeting about this subject. One of the zone leaders thinks i have this immense amount of love for the people here (which i do) but he asked me to talk for a bit at our meeting (in Portuguese..gahh) why i love them and how we can all better love our investigators.. It went better than i thought, but dang.. I am still struggling with the language.. At the office i found some lovely packages! Mom.. thank you for the package from Whitney´s wedding. I loved it. Loved the pictures and the letters and candies.. Those jelly beans were amazing.. What are they?? Good job whoever picked those for the wedding. mom.. I cannot believe you took that twilight poster to her wedding!!! oh my gosh.. ha ha you should´ve cut out jacob and edward. ha ha ha Whit´s wedding was beautiful. You are glowing whit! I am so happy for you. Drew. thanks for the picks of Isla.. She is adorable.. She has this smile that looks suspicious. ha ha i can´t quite describe it. ha ha My dear XANGO friends.. You are too kind to send me that package. Oh my gosh.. You are all so thoughtful. The toys are amazing.. treats.. delish and thanks for the letters. I cannot believe how much fun we all had working together.. It just was not normal. ha ha
Okay- so this week.. Our zone leaders felt like everyone in our zone could have at least one baptism. So everyday they called to see how we were doing and who we were going to mark. It was kinda overwhelming because everyone we were trying to invite to be baptized, it was´t going so smoothly. We were teaching a girl Alina. She is 12 and is also taking lessons from the Jehovah's Witnesses. We have been teaching her for the last 3 weeks and wouldn´t come to church with us until she talked with her JW professor. So we went to her house on Saturday and she said i talked to my professor yesterday. I have my religion and i am staying with it. I don´t want to take you lessons anymore.. They way she was talking was so scripted.. It was sad. I testified and testified and Irmã testified but she wants to be a Jehovah's Witness.., Yuck! I am so sad for her.. but we warned her.. it´s on her now and we did our part to invite her to come unto Christ. So- we lost an investigator which was really sad.
Also this week we tried to meet with 2 investigators we wanted to baptize on Sunday. Everything we did wasn´t working. I have never worked so hard out here and felt like i was doing nothing to fulfill my purpose. We could never meet with one named Ari because her dad doesn´t like the church.. and the other, Gardet, never had time. It was so frustrating. So Irmã and i fasted. We were in some need of extra help. Finally we met with Gardet on Friday and invited him to be baptized on Sunday.. (yes i know that was fast.. but if it´s the lords will, we will do it!) Gardet said, i don´t know.. that is too soon.. and the recent convert teaching with us said, no.. it´s late.. you should´ve been baptized yesterday.. It was awesome! I love the recent converts here. Long story short, Gardet avoided us after that, didn´t showe up to our appointment and didn´t come to church Sunday and wouldn´t meet with us again.
It was Saturday nightish and we had an appointment with and investigator who was a reference from the elders in Lapa.. So we met with this guy Manuel. He was telling us that he went to church like 10 years ago in Cape Verde and has a book of mormon and wants to go to church on Sunday with us.. Irmã and i felt the exact same thing.. all week we were looking for someone who could be baptized and wha la, Here he is.. so we invited him to be baptized the first time we met him, in the first lesson for the next day! He said yes! we were thrilled and so grateful to heavenly father.. It was amazing.. It was like one of the stories you only hear about but no one knows the person who actually baptized someone that fast. ha ha So Sunday morning comes, and Manuel isn´t in church. We called him and he won´t answer. We called him like 7 times in 2 hours. Finally he picked up the phone, yelled at me not to call back and then he turned off his phone. Sacrament meeting was starting and i had to speak. I cried throughout my entire talk. I was so sad and frustrated we were given this amazing miracle to baptize someone and then.. he doesn´t want it anymore. Church was over and that was it.. We didn´t have anyone baptized for this last week. I felt like the biggest failure and i didn´t fulfill my purpose. I know i was extremely blessed to baptize my first 7 weeks here. But to go one week without.. broke my heart. It was so sad. I haven´t felt this yet.. I´ve never not seen sucess.. but i just have to keep moving forward and do better this week.
I am glad to hear Park City was fun. Mom- I am sorry you lost your ring.. I hope you find it.. You need to just take off all your stuff in one place and leave it so you don´t lose your nice jewelry. man.. that's rough mom. Boomer, how is high school? I want to hear all about it. Hannah how is your tooth and Seminary? dad, I am glad you are well and happy.. Your hair is completely white.. what the heck happened.. and i stressing you out too much?? ha ha Mom.. How are you? How is JetBlue? Drew you sound happy and well.. don´t be having any more kids yet.. Tanner.. you are great and i love you. I am sorry you are so busy all the time.. Isla is a beautiful baby.. Oh i love you all. Thanks for your support. Take Care my fam..
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
It´s me again.. I feel like i was just here emailing you about last week.. Man.. The missionaries say time picks up every transfer and they are so right! I am already in my 3rd week of my 2nd transfer... AHHHHHH.. I honestly don´t even know where to start with this last week. My sweet fossil bag broke and i died! I was so sad. Remember how much i loved that bag? Now i use the cute bag carol gave me from Nordstrom and i love it. Thank you Carol.. Don´t worry Tanner, I am not using a backpack.. Never will.
Monday the zone leaders called an emergency zone meeting on pday! We went to the office in Benfica and talked about love for our investigators.. It was sad because obviously it is a big deal if we are having a meeting about this subject. One of the zone leaders thinks i have this immense amount of love for the people here (which i do) but he asked me to talk for a bit at our meeting (in Portuguese..gahh) why i love them and how we can all better love our investigators.. It went better than i thought, but dang.. I am still struggling with the language.. At the office i found some lovely packages! Mom.. thank you for the package from Whitney´s wedding. I loved it. Loved the pictures and the letters and candies.. Those jelly beans were amazing.. What are they?? Good job whoever picked those for the wedding. mom.. I cannot believe you took that twilight poster to her wedding!!! oh my gosh.. ha ha you should´ve cut out jacob and edward. ha ha ha Whit´s wedding was beautiful. You are glowing whit! I am so happy for you. Drew. thanks for the picks of Isla.. She is adorable.. She has this smile that looks suspicious. ha ha i can´t quite describe it. ha ha My dear XANGO friends.. You are too kind to send me that package. Oh my gosh.. You are all so thoughtful. The toys are amazing.. treats.. delish and thanks for the letters. I cannot believe how much fun we all had working together.. It just was not normal. ha ha
Okay- so this week.. Our zone leaders felt like everyone in our zone could have at least one baptism. So everyday they called to see how we were doing and who we were going to mark. It was kinda overwhelming because everyone we were trying to invite to be baptized, it was´t going so smoothly. We were teaching a girl Alina. She is 12 and is also taking lessons from the Jehovah's Witnesses. We have been teaching her for the last 3 weeks and wouldn´t come to church with us until she talked with her JW professor. So we went to her house on Saturday and she said i talked to my professor yesterday. I have my religion and i am staying with it. I don´t want to take you lessons anymore.. They way she was talking was so scripted.. It was sad. I testified and testified and Irmã testified but she wants to be a Jehovah's Witness.., Yuck! I am so sad for her.. but we warned her.. it´s on her now and we did our part to invite her to come unto Christ. So- we lost an investigator which was really sad.
Also this week we tried to meet with 2 investigators we wanted to baptize on Sunday. Everything we did wasn´t working. I have never worked so hard out here and felt like i was doing nothing to fulfill my purpose. We could never meet with one named Ari because her dad doesn´t like the church.. and the other, Gardet, never had time. It was so frustrating. So Irmã and i fasted. We were in some need of extra help. Finally we met with Gardet on Friday and invited him to be baptized on Sunday.. (yes i know that was fast.. but if it´s the lords will, we will do it!) Gardet said, i don´t know.. that is too soon.. and the recent convert teaching with us said, no.. it´s late.. you should´ve been baptized yesterday.. It was awesome! I love the recent converts here. Long story short, Gardet avoided us after that, didn´t showe up to our appointment and didn´t come to church Sunday and wouldn´t meet with us again.
It was Saturday nightish and we had an appointment with and investigator who was a reference from the elders in Lapa.. So we met with this guy Manuel. He was telling us that he went to church like 10 years ago in Cape Verde and has a book of mormon and wants to go to church on Sunday with us.. Irmã and i felt the exact same thing.. all week we were looking for someone who could be baptized and wha la, Here he is.. so we invited him to be baptized the first time we met him, in the first lesson for the next day! He said yes! we were thrilled and so grateful to heavenly father.. It was amazing.. It was like one of the stories you only hear about but no one knows the person who actually baptized someone that fast. ha ha So Sunday morning comes, and Manuel isn´t in church. We called him and he won´t answer. We called him like 7 times in 2 hours. Finally he picked up the phone, yelled at me not to call back and then he turned off his phone. Sacrament meeting was starting and i had to speak. I cried throughout my entire talk. I was so sad and frustrated we were given this amazing miracle to baptize someone and then.. he doesn´t want it anymore. Church was over and that was it.. We didn´t have anyone baptized for this last week. I felt like the biggest failure and i didn´t fulfill my purpose. I know i was extremely blessed to baptize my first 7 weeks here. But to go one week without.. broke my heart. It was so sad. I haven´t felt this yet.. I´ve never not seen sucess.. but i just have to keep moving forward and do better this week.
I am glad to hear Park City was fun. Mom- I am sorry you lost your ring.. I hope you find it.. You need to just take off all your stuff in one place and leave it so you don´t lose your nice jewelry. man.. that's rough mom. Boomer, how is high school? I want to hear all about it. Hannah how is your tooth and Seminary? dad, I am glad you are well and happy.. Your hair is completely white.. what the heck happened.. and i stressing you out too much?? ha ha Mom.. How are you? How is JetBlue? Drew you sound happy and well.. don´t be having any more kids yet.. Tanner.. you are great and i love you. I am sorry you are so busy all the time.. Isla is a beautiful baby.. Oh i love you all. Thanks for your support. Take Care my fam..
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Pictures!
August 2011 They city of Loures, it's a part of my area and Odivelaf and lots of apartments here. I took this as we were going to teach a family.
August 2011 Zone P-day we went to Alemeda to play frizbee at the park with the Lisboa zone, not everyone in the zone could make it but we still had fun playing in the rain. Elder Dacosta, Olson, Walter, me, Chrtste, Irma Joslin, Spurlock, Roundy, Rose, Rodriguez, James, Fillerup.
August 2011 Luciano's baptism (left to right) Diamontino, Luciano, me, Irma Joslin Luciano is the one we had a hard time getting a hold of and taught him one lesson over the phone and then the night before his baptismal interview we found out where he lived and taught him on his doorstep all of the commandments.
August 2011 Ivo's baptism (left to right) Bruno, me, Ivo, Irma Joslin, Marlane, Sofia. Marlane was baptized 2 weeks before, Bruno was baptized the next week. Sofia is 7 years old, all cousins
July 2011 Doris & Bruno baptism – It was windy and really sunny outside
July 2011 Irma Jolslin and I at a church in Campo Paqueno for a district meeting. These are hand painted tiles and this is funny because this is on the side of the LDS Church
August 2011 Edson's Baptism! He was elect. Me, Tenda (a member) Edson & Irma Joslin
July 2011 First District Meeting Elder James, Me, Irma Joslin, Elder Fillerup – We are the coolest district ever! We have a lot of fun together
"I don't know why Heavenly Father blesses me so much"
Olá! My wonderful family.. I adore you and i am so grateful for your emails. This week was crazy! I didn´t get to meet my new companion until like 11pm on Monday night.. i waited to meet her ALL day. It was the longest day.. Her name is Irmã Mortensen. She has been serving in Porto for the last year and now finally came to Lisboa! She is incredible. I don´t know why Heavenly Father blesses me so much. Irmã Mortensen is from Florida and goes home in November. She has got this language down, and i am learning a lot from her. She is calm, cool and collective.. Just what i need. She and i have been stuck in some fun situations this week. We couldn´t find the bus one night after a lesson and we needed to get home so we walked in the rain for an hour and walked through an Afrian village where some guy was making fun my my accent and awful Portuguese. He laughed at me the whole time i was trying to contact him.
I never remember what i tell you the week before so sorry if i repeat anything.. Weeks go Irmã Joslin and i met a girl named Inês. She is dating a less active in our area and has come to church a few times. We taught her for the first time last Sunday, Marked her for baptism on Tuesday and she was baptized on Saturday!!! She was elect! She had already been reading a little bit of the book of mormon and knew most of the commandments. When i gave her the invite to be baptized she wouldn´t even let me finish and she said yes! She cried all throughout her baptism. She was happy. I love the happiness the gospel brings to peoples lives. How could you ever not want this gospel in your life. It makes sense, it´s true.. and well, it is just true!
We had another baptism marked for yesterday, but it fell. It was sad. The lady that was supposed to be baptized it like 40 years old living in a 5 year old body.She makes no sense. She has a major fear of water and we were working with her all week to help her overcome this fear. She even told us she didn´t believe in god, just so she didn´t have to go through with the baptism. We showed her exactly how the baptism would go and she was so excited. It´s like night and day with Madlena. The next day was her interview for the baptism and we didn´t feel like she was going to come, so we walked to pick her up and she rolled her eyes when she saw us. ha ha she said sorry i can´t make it to the interview. My cousin is coming to pick some things up and i need to wait for him. We said, no problem.. We can wait.. Oh that made her mad so she walked down the street, threw a tantrum and came back and said, my shoe broke. I can´t be baptized. ha ha she then walked in her apartment building and we waited for her for 25 minutes and then decided to go knock on her door. She wasn´t there and every other door we knocked on looking for her, she wasn´t there either. I am pretty sure people were lying for her so we just left. We went back to her apartment the next day and asked if she would come to church and she said yes.. I will be there. I am sorry about yesterday.. I still want to be baptized.. yadda yadda.. well, yesterday was church.. and she didn´t come. She has only been to church once and she needed to go to church again before she could be baptized. It was sad. We did everything we could to help her and prepare her, but in the end she used her agency and decided not to be baptized. My heart aches and hurts when people skip out on this amazing experience. She needs to be baptized. Everyone needs to be baptized! Gahh
To make yesterday even better.. Irmã Mortensen and i were walking under a metro and yes, we got pooped on!!!!! IT was SO GROSS.. I dry heaved forever. ha ha ha ha It was in Irmãs hair and on our shirts and skirts.. it even got on my bag.. I was so grossed out. Never did i think that would happen. And we got on a bus to go visit a member and well, we found out that we were out of our area because we got on the wrong bus. Ooops.
Right now we have 10 new investigators. It is incredible We are teaching a mom of 2 kids we have already baptized. She wants to stop smoking so badly.. She was down to only one cigarette yesterday. It was incredible. We are also teaching a mom and her two boys. They were taught years ago by The Elders but were never baptized. Two members of our ward each brought a friend that wants to hear more about the gospel. Can you say miracles are happening right before my eyes.. oh my gosh! I still love it here and that is why i didn´t get transferred. There is still more work for me to do.
I am off to go do some grocery shopping and then Zone Meeting tonight. I hope you are all having fun in Park City. Tell everyone hello.. I hope you got my letter and pictures.. I will have more for you later.
Stay Well my family XOXO
Love, Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
I never remember what i tell you the week before so sorry if i repeat anything.. Weeks go Irmã Joslin and i met a girl named Inês. She is dating a less active in our area and has come to church a few times. We taught her for the first time last Sunday, Marked her for baptism on Tuesday and she was baptized on Saturday!!! She was elect! She had already been reading a little bit of the book of mormon and knew most of the commandments. When i gave her the invite to be baptized she wouldn´t even let me finish and she said yes! She cried all throughout her baptism. She was happy. I love the happiness the gospel brings to peoples lives. How could you ever not want this gospel in your life. It makes sense, it´s true.. and well, it is just true!
We had another baptism marked for yesterday, but it fell. It was sad. The lady that was supposed to be baptized it like 40 years old living in a 5 year old body.She makes no sense. She has a major fear of water and we were working with her all week to help her overcome this fear. She even told us she didn´t believe in god, just so she didn´t have to go through with the baptism. We showed her exactly how the baptism would go and she was so excited. It´s like night and day with Madlena. The next day was her interview for the baptism and we didn´t feel like she was going to come, so we walked to pick her up and she rolled her eyes when she saw us. ha ha she said sorry i can´t make it to the interview. My cousin is coming to pick some things up and i need to wait for him. We said, no problem.. We can wait.. Oh that made her mad so she walked down the street, threw a tantrum and came back and said, my shoe broke. I can´t be baptized. ha ha she then walked in her apartment building and we waited for her for 25 minutes and then decided to go knock on her door. She wasn´t there and every other door we knocked on looking for her, she wasn´t there either. I am pretty sure people were lying for her so we just left. We went back to her apartment the next day and asked if she would come to church and she said yes.. I will be there. I am sorry about yesterday.. I still want to be baptized.. yadda yadda.. well, yesterday was church.. and she didn´t come. She has only been to church once and she needed to go to church again before she could be baptized. It was sad. We did everything we could to help her and prepare her, but in the end she used her agency and decided not to be baptized. My heart aches and hurts when people skip out on this amazing experience. She needs to be baptized. Everyone needs to be baptized! Gahh
To make yesterday even better.. Irmã Mortensen and i were walking under a metro and yes, we got pooped on!!!!! IT was SO GROSS.. I dry heaved forever. ha ha ha ha It was in Irmãs hair and on our shirts and skirts.. it even got on my bag.. I was so grossed out. Never did i think that would happen. And we got on a bus to go visit a member and well, we found out that we were out of our area because we got on the wrong bus. Ooops.
Right now we have 10 new investigators. It is incredible We are teaching a mom of 2 kids we have already baptized. She wants to stop smoking so badly.. She was down to only one cigarette yesterday. It was incredible. We are also teaching a mom and her two boys. They were taught years ago by The Elders but were never baptized. Two members of our ward each brought a friend that wants to hear more about the gospel. Can you say miracles are happening right before my eyes.. oh my gosh! I still love it here and that is why i didn´t get transferred. There is still more work for me to do.
I am off to go do some grocery shopping and then Zone Meeting tonight. I hope you are all having fun in Park City. Tell everyone hello.. I hope you got my letter and pictures.. I will have more for you later.
Stay Well my family XOXO
Love, Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Monday, August 29, 2011
Transfers
Family!
Transfers are today and...... I am staying in Odivelas. Irmã Joslin is leaving me and i am freaking out! Irmã Joslin only has one more transfer left and then she is going home to St. George. It´s funny to see missionaries getting close to going home.. They are not ready! I have always thought missionaries can´t wait to get out.. but nope.. a lot of them love it in the field.. I can know see why.. but anyway.. I am staying another transfer here in Odivelas and I hardly know this area and i am getting a new companion from the Porto mission. I think her name is Irmã, ugh i can´t remember. I am so nervous to get around this city. Heavenly Father is going to have to help me in overtime this transfer.
This last week was crazy with one investigator.. His name is Lucio. He has a problem with smoking and depression. I can´t remember if i started talking about him last week but i´ll tell you again.. He is miserable in this life and he thinks that by smoking it will kill him. He wants to die and get out of the situation with his ex. As we taught him, we made many promises to him that the lord will help him if he comes close to Christ and is baptized. Yet everyday he would still smoke and tell us how hard it is to stop. We fasted, the Elders gave him a blessing, Irmã and i would pray with him on the phone when we couldn´t meet with him and long story short... He was baptized yesterday!! It was amazing. The service was small and so spiritual. It was just what Lucio needed. He was happy and all smiles yesterday. I loved every moment of watching his life change in the last 2ish weeks. Irmã and i tried to mark our investigator Alexandro this week, but he just insn´t sure if he should really be baptized twice.. It´s frustrating to testify and try to help others gain a testimony and they don´t really want to work for their own testimony. Then we did actually mark another investigator Madelena for baptism this Sunday.. She has a fear of water because she almost drown once, but we are working with her and she wants to be baptized. This work is growing insanely fast. So many blessings from the lord.
Last night Irmã and i met a girl who is dating a less active in our area.. We gave her the first lesson, she already has a book of mormon and is going to pray about what we taught to see if it is true. She loves everything about the gospel and i think she already has somewhat of a testimony of the book of mormon. Tonight we are going to meet with her and invite her to be baptized.
So- I have some answers for your questions fam.. My flat.. is incredible. I have heard that it is the nicest flat in the mission. it´s pretty big for the apartments here in Portugal.. or at least what i have seen so far. It is in the perfect location too. Right in the city by the Metro, Bus stations, Mini market, fruit market, the church is a 2 minute walk.. So you want to know what we eat.. hmmm everything! ha ha Mom- they have a lion bar cereal and it is delish! I thought of you and bought it. The Yogurt is a million times better here.. The juices are divine.. i love the walffle things we use to buy at the London Market, pastries are to die for, oh i could go on forever about the food.
Last night at a Recent Converts house i tried goat.. It was yummy.
oh this is my address in Odivelas.. the other address from last week is the mission office in Benfica.. send packages and other stuff there.. but send letters here for the next 6 weeks until i tell you if i am transferred again.
RUA ALFREDO ROQUE GAMEIRO
Nº5 3D
ODIVELAS 2675-279
PORTUGAL
One thing i really miss is being able to go to the temple. I love talking about the temple that will be built here though. People get so excited! Yet we still don´t have news about ground breaking or things of that sort.. Have you read anything about it? The stake president and President Torgan are very hush hush on this topic.. so you probably know as much as i do.. nothing. ha ha
I still love it out here. Yes, the work is tough but i am here for the Lord. I am ever so grateful to be serving.
I´ve gotta go and wait for my new comp. I love you. Take Care.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
Transfers are today and...... I am staying in Odivelas. Irmã Joslin is leaving me and i am freaking out! Irmã Joslin only has one more transfer left and then she is going home to St. George. It´s funny to see missionaries getting close to going home.. They are not ready! I have always thought missionaries can´t wait to get out.. but nope.. a lot of them love it in the field.. I can know see why.. but anyway.. I am staying another transfer here in Odivelas and I hardly know this area and i am getting a new companion from the Porto mission. I think her name is Irmã, ugh i can´t remember. I am so nervous to get around this city. Heavenly Father is going to have to help me in overtime this transfer.
This last week was crazy with one investigator.. His name is Lucio. He has a problem with smoking and depression. I can´t remember if i started talking about him last week but i´ll tell you again.. He is miserable in this life and he thinks that by smoking it will kill him. He wants to die and get out of the situation with his ex. As we taught him, we made many promises to him that the lord will help him if he comes close to Christ and is baptized. Yet everyday he would still smoke and tell us how hard it is to stop. We fasted, the Elders gave him a blessing, Irmã and i would pray with him on the phone when we couldn´t meet with him and long story short... He was baptized yesterday!! It was amazing. The service was small and so spiritual. It was just what Lucio needed. He was happy and all smiles yesterday. I loved every moment of watching his life change in the last 2ish weeks. Irmã and i tried to mark our investigator Alexandro this week, but he just insn´t sure if he should really be baptized twice.. It´s frustrating to testify and try to help others gain a testimony and they don´t really want to work for their own testimony. Then we did actually mark another investigator Madelena for baptism this Sunday.. She has a fear of water because she almost drown once, but we are working with her and she wants to be baptized. This work is growing insanely fast. So many blessings from the lord.
Last night Irmã and i met a girl who is dating a less active in our area.. We gave her the first lesson, she already has a book of mormon and is going to pray about what we taught to see if it is true. She loves everything about the gospel and i think she already has somewhat of a testimony of the book of mormon. Tonight we are going to meet with her and invite her to be baptized.
So- I have some answers for your questions fam.. My flat.. is incredible. I have heard that it is the nicest flat in the mission. it´s pretty big for the apartments here in Portugal.. or at least what i have seen so far. It is in the perfect location too. Right in the city by the Metro, Bus stations, Mini market, fruit market, the church is a 2 minute walk.. So you want to know what we eat.. hmmm everything! ha ha Mom- they have a lion bar cereal and it is delish! I thought of you and bought it. The Yogurt is a million times better here.. The juices are divine.. i love the walffle things we use to buy at the London Market, pastries are to die for, oh i could go on forever about the food.
Last night at a Recent Converts house i tried goat.. It was yummy.
oh this is my address in Odivelas.. the other address from last week is the mission office in Benfica.. send packages and other stuff there.. but send letters here for the next 6 weeks until i tell you if i am transferred again.
RUA ALFREDO ROQUE GAMEIRO
Nº5 3D
ODIVELAS 2675-279
PORTUGAL
One thing i really miss is being able to go to the temple. I love talking about the temple that will be built here though. People get so excited! Yet we still don´t have news about ground breaking or things of that sort.. Have you read anything about it? The stake president and President Torgan are very hush hush on this topic.. so you probably know as much as i do.. nothing. ha ha
I still love it out here. Yes, the work is tough but i am here for the Lord. I am ever so grateful to be serving.
I´ve gotta go and wait for my new comp. I love you. Take Care.
XOXO
Irmã Boshard
*Posted By The Boshard Family
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